Irene Sabatini
The Boy Next Door => NEWS & EVENTS
NEWS
- 09 June 2010 - The Boy Next Door Wins the Orange Award for New Writers
"Immediately engaging, vivid and buzzing with energy, The Boy Next Door is the work of a true storyteller."
"At heart a love story, it is also so much more as, through the experiences of its charismatic protagonists, it charts the first two decades of the emerging Zimbabwe with honesty, humour and humanity.
"Irene Sabatini has written an important book that will enchant readers and which marks the emergence of a serious new talent.”
Di Spiers, Editor of Readings at BBC Radio 4 and Chair of Judges
"This year's Orange Award for New Writers goes to a book whose words fly off the page, as they were reputedly flying off the pen as it was written. It is a joy of a novel from a born-storyteller who's a great new talent."
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Forthcoming Events
- 25 September 2010 - Göteborg Book Fair
10.00–10.45 -- On the road from Africa
More and more African voices are emerging into the throng of world literature. Some are new writers, while others are unknown to Swedish readers. Who are they? What do they write about? What do they look like?
Come and experience a cavalcade of impressions, with 45 minutes of presentations and readings. The seminar is the ideal shortcut for those who have a growing desire to meet more writers, to gain a deeper knowledge and to pose the question: Why do people talk about African writers? Why aren’t they just called writers? Participants include Kopano Matlwa from South Africa , Ondjaki from Angola , Petina Gappah from Zimbabwe , Tolu Ogunlesi from Nigeria , Irene Sabatini from Zimbabwe , and Biyi Bandele from Nigeria .
Moderator: Gunilla Kindstrand, cultural journalist.-- Language: English
15.00–15.45 -- Maaza Mengiste, Irene Sabatini -- Eyes turned homeward
Ethiopian Maaza Mengiste and Irene Sabatini from Zimbabwe are two writers who have left their homelands, but only physically. In their books they have returned. Mengiste, currently resident in New York , writes in her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze about the brutal revolution in Ethiopia in 1974 and the hope of a father and his two sons, which turns to despair with the guerillas’ rule of terror.
Irene Sabatini lives in Geneva and debuted with The Boy Next Door, a love story which takes place in Zimbabwe from the challenging times of early independence in 1980 until the present day. Maaza Mengiste and Irene Sabatini talk about their books, both published in Swedish translation this year, and about what it feels like to return to your native country in your writing.
Moderator: Görrel Espelund, journalist. -- Language: English
Recent Events
- 28 August 2010 - Edinburgh International Book Festival -- 7:30pm - 8:30pm
Stories of Trauma and Hope in Nigeria and Zimbabwe
Two countries at opposite ends of Africa , once brimming with promise, now find themselves struggling with corruption and hypocrisy. Kachi A Ozumba’s The Shadow of a Smile is based on real-life courage against a backdrop of Nigerian bureaucracy, while Irene Sabatini’s The Boy Next Door looks at Zimbabwe and its journey from the joy of independence to the chaos today. Both stories share a sense of hope and optimism against the odds.
- 14 July 2010 - University of London, Institute of Education , Annual Alumni Gathering
- June 2010 - Launch of the German translation of THE BOY NEXT DOOR: A NOVEL
- 7 June 2010 - Book Reading in London South Bank for the Orange Award for New Writers
- 1 May 2010 - Book signing at the Geneva International Book Fair
- 13 April 2010 - The Boy Next Door: A Novel - Shortlisted - Orange Award for New Writers
- March 2010 - Audio Book out in the US
- 04 February 2010- Launch of THE BOY NEXT DOOR: A NOVEL in the UK
- 29 January 2010- Launch of Dutch Translation of THE BOY NEXT DOOR: A NOVEL
Book Reading and Signing
- 24 September 2009 - Off-the-Shelf Bookshop, Geneva, Switzerland
