This story is about a girl. Teresa. It begins in 1975, when she’s only twelve. She’s just left her homeland, Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, now riven by revolution and madness. In the wake of civil war, fear and terror crack open Teresa’s idyllic childhood. Even the family pets act distraught. Granny no longer tends to her roses. Everybody starts sleeping in the same room, afraid of knives in the night. They must flee the land they have …
Tag: book
At times like these, when you stand in awe of the vast changes reworking your life, and you ask yourself whether you’ll ever get back so many of the things you took for granted, it’s inevitable to hark back to the good old days and wish for a time machine. It doesn’t matter how kind life has been to me, how much I love my sons, or how much fulfilment I’ve found in my career — nothing compares to …
This story is about a girl. Teresa. It begins in 1975, when she’s only twelve. She’s just left her homeland, Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, now riven by revolution and madness. In the wake of civil war, fear and terror crack open Teresa’s idyllic childhood. Even the family pets act distraught. Granny no longer tends to her roses. Everybody starts sleeping in the same room, afraid of knives in the night. They must flee the land they have …
When you finish writing a book you think the work is mostly done, but in the last few years I’ve learned this is far from true – most of the work is still there for you to do it, as your editor tells you to rewrite and rewrite again. And finally, when he is satisfied and he works on the pages you have sent him, and you see the final result, you wonder at how your story can be …
I was doing some research for the final touch ups to my book. I needed the name of a book my heroine, Teresa, had bought in July 1980, precisely forty summers ago. I searched the internet for a familiar title, but nothing. Then I remembered my bookcase, where I keep many books from my youth. By an amazing coincidence, the first one I grabbed was The Swarm, by Arthur Herzog, a sci fi /terror book about the invasion of …
DAY thirteen, Monday I get up early. The sun is shining, the sky is blue. I have a busy day ahead of me. No chance to go out. Today, if life were normal, I would be in Malta for some meetings, that will now be held by videoconference. Working day When we are all in the conference, a few small squares on the screen, we greet each other with alacrity – so good to see everyone is …
Lately I have come across two stories about pandemics: one in the highly interesting TV series “The Hot Zone” on National Geographic channel, that tells the story of the Ebola virus and how it was discovered in Africa in the seventies; the other, the new, unputdownable third book in Arturo Fuentes’ saga (so far only published in Spanish También los demonios ocultan secretos, meaning “Demons also hide secrets” in English), where an unknown, highly virulent disease comes back from the …
Madrid, on a cold January morning. I come out of my hotel, superbly located in the fashionable Salamanca quarter. I cross the street and enter the coffee shop. Sitting at table in a corner I see my friend Bea and her husband, Arturo Fuentes the writer, whom I’m meeting today for the first time even if I’m already his reader and follower on Facebook. An unexpected writer Bea and I have been friends for years. We met professionally but …
She came down the castle hill and looked at the magnificent square facing the river Tagus. The blue sky reflected on the river and the sun was warm. It looked like summer had finally arrived. Below the arches of the old late 18th century buildings there was a handicraft market. She was walking by distractedly when she saw a table full of ceramic plates featuring the many professions andshe remembered that her elder son was doing his last exams at university, …
It all began with the TV series, based on a true story I had never heard about: that of the mysterious disappearance of British ships Erebus and Terror in the mid eighteenth century in the frozen waters of the Arctic, along with 129 men who were never seen again. Facts The series and the book – both under the same title “The Terror” – are based on true events – the expedition (known as the Franklin expedition due to its …
