My latest novel, Laura Rise - Detained, will be on display during the Bookfest Book Fair (May 28 - June 1, 2025) at the Bookbite booth no. E12.
On Saturday, May 31st, at 4pm, I'll be stopping by the Bookbite booth to sign a few copies waiting to be bought by readers. If you'd like an autograph, either get there at the same time, or stop by the booth later to buy an autographed copy.
Bonus! A little treat for you with me reading an excerpt from Laura Rise - Detained. Check the English translation below the video.
Translation into English of the excerpt read in the above video:
As
soon as I would notice her, I closed my notebook and stood up from my desk,
giving her a discreet nod. Then, I'd walk out of the office and offer her my
hand. Depending on the weather, we'd either go out in the courtyard in the sun
and sit on a bench, or we'd sit on a bench in the hallway where the classrooms
were. Holding her small, velvety little hand in my hand, I had a sense of
bravery and a feeling that I could have protected this creature with my life. A
small moment of silence would follow each time, as if Aria was giving me time
to transpose myself back into the spirit of the story and get back into the
characters' skin.
‘Miss, please continue the story’, Aria
would then tell me.
And
I would go on telling it. I was always aware of the limited time in
which I had to finish the story, and I had already developed a knack for
quickly finding an ending to the story I had started a short while before. At
the end of it, the Deer always wore a smile, as if the ending I had told
her had unfolded before her very eyes. She would thank me and go back to her
classroom. I often stayed for a few moments in the place where Aria and I had
been. As if it was too important a ritual to put off so easily. The children
ran and screamed in the hallway, bustling toward the class that was soon to
begin, but to me it felt like I was seeing them from another body, as if I
could be in two different worlds at the same time that looked but felt nothing
alike.
I've
often wondered what became of Aria when she grew up, if she still seeks out
stories and if she's as motivated to find out how they end. I wrote the story
of the happy deer with her in mind, after a neighbor's little girl called me at
the door to ask if I wanted to take in a cat.
Yes, this is exactly how she asked me. What a beautiful language children often speak! She held that ginger kitten in her little hands with such love and gentleness, that the tenderness I felt when I saw her made me think of the little deer-like Aria. In writing the story, I probably tried to see Aria as a grown-up, that's why the mother-deer, the main character of the story, is called Aria. I felt the need to imagine her as gentle, unchanged by the years that have passed or the world that must have left its mark on her in the meantime.
