My short story ‘De BlÃ¥ Skorna’ (The Blue Shoes) has been accepted by Novellix, a Swedish publisher of short stories: http://www.novellix.se/. Publication is scheduled for September, and I hope to be in Sweden then.

So, here I am. A (nearly) blank screen. Lots of music. The characters have appeared, though their world is still largely unknown to me. But I have taken small steps to join them. Take their journey.

Here, in my little studio in Auckland, I have planted a lucky shoot. And I keep the rose that unexpectedly sprouted roots. I take it as an auspicious sign.

Click here to listen to Death Waltz with Adam Hurst . Sublime.

I was just alerted that ‘Let me sing you gentle songs’ has now been released in Iceland:

Click here to visit my Icelandic publisher, Forlagid

Back in Wellington. I don’t come often, but each time I am reminded of how much I once loved this city. Now, I see it through the layers of history that has passed since then. With nostalgia and a little sadness.

But there is no sadness in the city itself. Quite the contrary, with the the buzz of the Festival. My two events take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. I am a little daunted by the task of chairing the session with Kate Grenville and Alan Hollinghurst on Tuesday. Firstly, because of the stature of both with such impressive literary records. Secondly, because these two authors have been on the Festival and media cirquit around the world and it will be a challenge to give something fresh to the audience. And to the objects. I know how tedious it can be to answer the same questions again and again. But there is a limit to new angles, of course. Perhaps it is a little like how it is with a novel: there are no truly unique stories, but there are unique ways of telling them. I am hoping we will be able to offer a uniquely Wellington session on Tuesday.

Click here to see the Festival program.

Just received the cover design for the Swedish pocket edition. Another variation on a theme – very nice!

The Finnish cover for The Kindness of Your Nature – Kaikki Hyvä Sinussa – has just arrived. I am very, very pleased with how it looks.
As an excerp for the back of the cover, the following passage has been chosen:
“Here, I realised that the darkness was not absolute. From up there on the deck the sea had been one with the surrounding darkness. But now I saw a multitude of shifting grey hues, as manifold as the most colourful landscape.”

Publication is scheduled for March 2012.
Publisher Gummerus
Translation Anuirmeli Sallamo-Lavi

I am grateful to the team who has looked after my books so very well in Finland, and I hope this release will make us all proud.

Finally, ‘Let me sing you gentle songs’ also titled ‘Astrid and Veronika’ is available in French, translated by Mélanie Carpe and published by L’Archipel.

Here is a first review, dated 20 January, in Le Monde:

But first, celebrate what has been. The hard work:

and

and music, especially Peace Piece by Bill Evans. And a little wine….

The result:

Albert Bonniers Förlag, Sweden

Aronsen Forlag, Denmark

Penguin, New Zealand and Australia

In line to publish in the new year:

Vigmostad & Björke, Norway, Gummerus, Finland, btb HC, Germany and Penguin, the USA

Also, very excitingly, Let me sing you gentle songs will be published in France in January 2012, and in Russia later in the year. The first little novel travels on.

Time for me to turn my head and my mind to a new imaginary world…

To quote Homer from the Odyssey:

There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.

Copenhagen, November 2011

Again, a small death. Packing up and leaving. It gets no easier with practice.

This time in Sweden has been busy with a lot of domestic travel, public appearences and meetings. Visits to Norway and Denmark. Wonderful, but exhausting. For the first time, I have felt like a proper Swedish author, included. But abruptly, that will all change now, and I will have to start swimming in another sea, at the other side of the earth. I know that once I am there it will feel absolutely fine, it’s just this transition that is so very hard.

On the way to Auckland, I will stop over in Paris for a week, and for the first time meet my French publisher, Archipel. It will be very interesting to see how ‘Let me sing you gentle songs’ will be received in France.

Under resans gång

Somligt har jag lärt mig
under resans gång
Det är inte alltid
namnet på stationerna
som betyder något
utan snarare vem
som möter dig på perrongen
när du väl kommer fram.

During the journey 

Some things I have learnt
during the journey
It isn’t always
the names of the stations
that are significant
but rather
who will meet you  on the platform
when you finally arrive.

Siv Arb, from Nattens sömmerskor/ Seamstresses of the night

Another very moving New Zealand Review, this time the Rotorua Daily Post.