A trip to New York, in pictures

I just got back from New York, where I went last week to visit my US publishers, Random House, and attend a special event for The House at the Edge of Night. It was an intense week full of meetings, preparations, jetlag, burritos, conversations about reading and writing, and many great people, some of whom I already knew, and lots of whom I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time. Here are five pictures that, for me, sum up the trip…

1. Day One. On the way from the airport to the city.

This is the first photo I took after landing in America. I didn't realise until I arrived just how American everything would be. By which I mean that every time that I read an American book in the past, I would be puzzled by certain references, always imagining them - without realising it - in terms of Europe, unable to map them onto the real thing. And then, on the train from the airport, several things made sense to me all at once when I saw a vacant lot and a clapboard house and a station wagon, and I snapped this (totally unremarkable) picture in pure excitement at finally being able to understand a little of what those writers I loved had actually been describing. It's very odd to finally visit a place like New York that already exists in fictional form in all our heads, and to overwrite that imaginary New York, street by street, with the real place.

​2. Day Three. Meeting the Random House book club.

On the third day of my trip, I went to visit my American publishers, Random House. I was really struck by everybody’s passion, enthusiasm and love for all things book related. People talk about the future decline of the book, but with publishers this passionate I can’t see it happening soon. Random House have set up a book club for The House at the Edge of Night, and I loved meeting them and hearing all the insightful, profound and inspiring things they had to say about books and writing. I think this picture shows what a warm and welcoming group they were and what writing and publishing are at their best – a community of readers getting together to talk about books. And they all seem to love Elena Ferrante as much as I do.

3. Preparations for the House at the Edge of Night event.

That evening, I went on an expedition to the Italian market with my agent Suzanne and her assistant Clio to get supplies for the House at the Edge of Night event the next day. We filled three huge bags with Italian delicacies, and here is the beautiful display that the two of them made. I particularly love the top left picture. In this one, you can see boxes of Leone violet pastilles, which we decided to give away to the guests because they are mentioned several times in the book. These are tiny old-fashioned candies which are made in Turin, just round the corner from where I live, and they are sold like this in many bars in Italy, including the House at the Edge of Night. And the beautiful Castellamare postcards were made by the Random House book club. Very weird to see things you've written about coming to life like this...

4. Day Four. The House at the Edge of Night event.

And after all those preparations, here's the event itself.

​5. Presenting the book.

And lastly, a moment of pure relief! Part of the event involved me presenting The House at the Edge of Night to the guests, most of whom didn’t know about the book yet. I was unexpectedly nervous about this. It wasn’t that I had no public speaking experience – more that all of it involved large groups of eleven-year-olds, and as such was of limited use when speaking to bloggers, magazine editors and journalists. And I was also divided for a long time between various different ways to introduce the book, wanting to present it in a way that was true to the story and the subject matter but without being too controversial or too personal in what was after all a general introduction. In the end, and with a lot of help along the way (my husband Daniele can probably give the speech himself without notes!) I decided to take the most honest approach and speak about what I felt was at the heart of the story, the 2008 financial crisis and how that led me to write about small places in Europe and the impact of the big history beyond their shores. It went down well, and in this photo you can clearly see how relieved I was about that… Lucky I had my lovely editor, Kate, cheering me on so kindly from the sidelines.

And to bring me back down to earth, I came back with a few unexpected souvenirs – some of them great, like a stack of book recommendations and Castellamare postcards – and some decidedly less great, like a bad case of the flu. New York is cold. Even compared to the mountains of North Italy it’s cold. My one piece of advice, if you’re planning to visit this beautiful city, is to bring thermal underwear and a hat and scarf…

The photos in this post were taken by the brilliant Danielle Siess from Random House, and you can see more of them here.

Thanks for reading, and all the very best,

Catherine