Book Launch

I had a wonderful book launch party on Wednesday at Mostly Books in Abingdon. I don't have many photos but I'm hoping that Mark at MB will have posted some on his blog and I can redirect you over there.

We sold, I would imagine, around 45 books, if you include the 11 I took home to hand on to people who'd requested signed copies. Not bad for a mid-week in a market town, and a tribute to Mostly Books' ability to get people into the shop. Mine was about the fourth event they were hosting in two days, so I was lucky to grab a slot!

Thanks to everyone who came--it was lovely to see you all.

RESTITUTION

Friday 19th September is publication date for Restitution.

It's a strange moment: I've been working on the book for about six years, on and off, and here it is at last, in print. Part of me still wants to grab it back and just check that I can't do another rewrite but I suppose this is it: the final version. Gulp.

So here's a little about the book:

February 1945, Europe is in ruins and the Red Army is revenging itself upon a petrified population. The war is over, but for some the fight for survival is only just beginning. Alix, the aristocratic daughter of a German resistance fighter, is alone and desperate to flee before the Reds come. But when a ferocious snowstorm descends she must return to the shelter of her abandoned ancestral home.

There, she is shocked to find her childhood sweetheart Gregor. As old passions are rekindled, a couple break into the house to hide - the man, dressed in Gestapo uniform, is a stranger, but his companion is altogether more familiar.By morning, the blizzard has died down but the Reds are back. The woman and her Nazi escort are dead, and Gregor has vanished.

Alone and terrified, Alix runs for her life, and embarks upon an extraordinary and heartbreaking journey. It will take sixty years and the fall of another empire - Communism - before the riddles of that fateful night can be deciphered.

"Restitution" is a memorable novel about love and betrayal, hatred and heroism - a reminder that, even in the worst of times, the most courageous acts of kindness are possible.

The Professors' Wives' Club, Joanne Rendell

Joanne Rendell is a Brit who, after completing her PhD in English Literature, moved to the States to be with her husband, a professor at NYU. She and I have met in several places online and become friends and I'm thrilled that her debut novel launches this week.

I bet some people have to concentrate hard on getting those apostrophes in her title right. Even professors' wives might have to pay attention. And that might not be the end to their problems, as The Professors' Wives' Club relates.

With its iron gate and high fence laced with honeysuckle, Manhattan University’s garden offers faculty wives Mary, Sofia, Ashleigh, and Hannah a much needed refuge. Each of them carries a scandalous secret that could rock the prestigious university to its very core.

When a ruthless Dean tries to demolish the garden, the four women are thrown together in a fight which enrages and unites them.

THE PROFESSORS’ WIVES CLUB

by Joanne Rendell

New American Library/Penguin; 2^nd September, 2008

Spotted

Spotted in Borders at Heathrow's Terminal Four: the paperback version of Borderlands by Brian McGilloway and Annabel Dore's The Great North Road (which I bought because I hadn't read it yet and I loved it and left it in Sydney for my brother's next guests to enjoy).

Spotted in Dymocks in George Street, Sydney, copies of Playing with the Moon. What a lovely bookshop that is. I could have lingered a long time there and in fact we did lose both children and 'urgent' purchases were made.

Spotted in its US edition in bookshops across the States (including Houston and Huntington Beach): Brian McGilloway's Borderlands. You are becoming ubiquitous, Brian.

We are starting to cross the planet!