This week I was in the Netherlands for the publication of The House at the Edge of Night, or De Lange Dagen van Castellamare! Here are just a few photos of what happened while I was there.
On the first day when I arrived, I did an interview with De Telegraaf, a Dutch national newspaper, and also with hebban.nl, which is similar to GoodReads. Here are Renate and Helma from Hebban, who were both lovely and very passionate about books and reading (they gave me some recommendations for Dutch books too):
That evening, I also met Constance, Anja and Meriam, three brilliant booksellers from around the Netherlands, and the Dutch translator, Lara. It was the first time I had ever met one of the translators who had worked on my book, and it was fascinating and a bit humbling to ask her about her work. Bookselling is different in every country, and compared to the UK there seems to be quite a happy mix of independent and chain shops, more like what we have here in Italy, which was interesting to hear.
On the second day my editor, Hedda, had the idea of taking me on a bike tour around the city. We stopped off at Scheltema, a beautiful bookshop in the centre of the city:
And then went on across the canal to the publishers' offices...
Where I found the Dutch book waiting for me, in its deckchair.
Here are my editor, Hedda, and Jill, the publicist, who were both fantastic people to spend time with and did so much to welcome me to the Netherlands. In fact, I would say that the feeling I left with was one of being warmly welcomed by everybody I met - the Netherlands, although small, has a great community of readers and writers.
Then as soon as I got home to Turin, the UK paperback book came out. To coincide with publication, I wrote an article for the online magazine Bookanista about the Ospedale degli Innocenti, one of Italy's hidden places and a foundling hospital with a noble history of six centuries of care for abandoned children. You can check it out here.
And on the 16th, I presented the Italian book, La Casa sull'Isola, at the first Wine & Reading event at Spazio 19 Coworking, my home from home in Turin and where I wrote most of Book Two. It was a really happy evening with friends and readers, and here are just a couple of photos of the night:
I hope I can find a few more Turinese writers and we can make it a regular event. If you want to check out a few more photos, you can find them here. For now, I hope you have a happy and peaceful week wherever in Europe or the world you are, and thanks to everyone who makes this worldwide community of readers such a good place to work. Until next week (when it will all be boring photos of my desk again, don't worry!).
RSS Feed
