The Portuguese writer Ricardo Adolfo said the emigration experience, a kind of ?rebirth?, was the inspiration for his novel Lots Happened to Me After I Died. The book is based on his own experience, moving with his family first from Angola to Macau, then to Lisbon.
Adolfo was not the only writer at the talk whose life journey had taken them far from their place of birth. Natasa Kramberger moved from a small village in Slovenia to the capital, Ljubljana. After studying in the Netherlands, she moved to Berlin. Her first novel, Heaven in Brambles, is about a girl studying in Amsterdam who meets an Italian fisherman.
The Slovakian writer Michaela Rosova acknowledged the help of prizes, financed by local councils or companies, in the launch of her career. The 25-year-old said she would gather a few more years of experience before following up her first novel Headlong.
Many of the writers said their early success did not give them the freedom to write something that was not genuine, in spite of pressure by publishers to turn out something new.
Arno Camenisch agreed, but said writing every day is good self-discipline. Camenisch wrote his first novel in German and Rhaeto-Romanic and even keeps a dual-language homepage.
Malgorzata Rejmer said her first novel Toximia is about ?toxic relationships?. Readers of the book who live in her district in Warsaw think Toximia is about the district, others think it is about the Polish capital, or about the whole country. Foreign readers, however, find the universal themes in the book, she said.
Hungary was represented at the talk by Viktor Horváth, whose first novel Turkish Mirror revisits 16th century Hungary under Turkish occupation.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: MTI
