Jean Kwok in Conversation

Photo credit: Girl Well Read. Do not use without permission.

Jean Kwok visited the North York Central Library in Toronto to talk about her new book, The Leftover Woman. 

A young Chinese woman gives birth to a baby girl and is told shortly after delivery that the baby has died. Jasmine grieves deeply for her daughter. A few years later she learns that her husband put their baby up for adoption—another casualty of China’s One Child Policy. Jasmine flees from her controlling husband to track down her daughter in New York City. The parallel narrative also involves the adoptive mother, Rebecca. She is a wealthy white woman who has a doting husband, high-profile career, and beautiful home. 

Publishing plays a paramount role in the story. Rebecca is an editor-in-chief at a legacy publisher who is dealing with an imminent scandal in order to save her career. Kwok gives her readers a glimpse of the world of publishing and uses it as one of the bridges to the theme of the patriarchy which Jasmine also faces in both China and the west.  

Jean explained that the title of the book is a play on the term “leftover woman” which refers to the women in China who are in their late twenties and are unmarried. It carries a negative connotation as it implies that they are somehow “leftover,” or undesirable. Jasmine: “In China, I'd seen posters warning girls of the danger of becoming leftover women, women that no one wanted. Leftover like scraps on a table, uneaten food, both a sacrilege and wasteful, something that should have nourished our country squandered and turned into rubbish: unwarned, purposeless, of no use to anyone. I was a leftover woman, I realized. After everyone else had carved away what they wanted to see in me and taken what they desired, I was all that was left." 

Kwok's writing is often praised for its authentic portrayal of the immigrant experience and the complexities of navigating different cultures. She often brings her own experiences into her books having come from a very traditional Chinese family where she is the youngest of seven. In terms of gender and age, she is at the bottom of her family hierarchy much like Jasmine. Jean also said that there is a lot of her in Rebecca as well—a modern woman trying to do it all. 

The Leftover Woman is about two mothers, two worlds, and one impossible choice.

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JEAN KWOK is the author of the bestselling Girl in Translation, Mambo in Chinatown, and Searching for Sylvie Lee, which was chosen as The Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick. Jean received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard and completed an MFA in fiction at Columbia. She worked as an English teacher and Dutch-English translator at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and now writes full-time.

Kwok was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Brooklyn as a young girl. 

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor Launch Party

Photo credit: Girl Well Read. Do not use without written permission.

The event took place on the Duke of York's patio, located in The Annex in downtown Toronto. It was the perfect venue to celebrate Bianca Marais' newest novel, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor. 

Marais is hilarious and warm, and she sure knows how to throw a party! It was fantastic to see so many bookstagrammers and authors in person, especially Samantha M. Bailey and Marissa Stapley who were Bianca's special guests. There were cocktails, appies, and a tarot card reader. 

Thank you to both Bianca and her inimitable team at HarperCollins Canada for a fab evening. 

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is a feminist and witchy rom-com that celebrates women and their complexities.  

The coven faces issues that plague all females, one of which is aging. Society is obsessed with youth, tying it to beauty, thus denying women the privilege to grow old gracefully. Another paramount theme is that of sex and sexuality, topics that are often taboo with women that are more mature with age. Marais also explores themes of identity, sisterhood, and the balance of power.  

Told from multiple points of view, the characters are complex and unique. With its propulsive narrative and strong female leads, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is magical, mysterious, and full of mirth. You will be put under its spell. 

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

A coven of modern-day witches. A magical heist-gone-wrong. A looming threat.

Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor. All eyes turn to the witch in charge, Queenie, who confesses they’ve fallen far behind on their mortgage payments. Still, there’s hope, since the imminent return of Ruby—one of the sisterhood who’s been gone for thirty-three years—will surely be their salvation.

But the mob is only the start of their troubles. One man is hellbent on avenging his family for the theft of a legacy he claims was rightfully his. In an act of desperation, Queenie makes a bargain with an evil far more powerful than anything they’ve ever faced. Then things take a turn for the worse when Ruby’s homecoming reveals a seemingly insurmountable obstacle instead of the solution to all their problems.

The witches are determined to save their home and themselves, but their aging powers are no match for increasingly malicious threats. Thankfully, they get a bit of help from Persephone, a feisty TikToker eager to smash the patriarchy. As the deadline to save the manor approaches, fractures among the sisterhood are revealed, and long-held secrets are exposed, culminating in a fiery confrontation with their enemies.

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BIANCA MARAIS holds a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, where she now teaches creative writing. Before turning to writing, she started a corporate training company and volunteered with Cotlands, where she assisted care workers in Soweto with providing aid for HIV/AIDS orphans. 

Originally from South Africa, Marais resides in Toronto with her husband.

#HarperPresents: Wine Tasting with Expert Sommelier Victoria James

Photo credit: Girl Well Read and HarperCollins. Do not use without written permission.

Expert sommelier Victoria James visited the Drake Hotel in Toronto where she was interviewed by Angela Aiello (celebrity wine expert, writer and educator) to launch her newly published memoir, Wine Girl. Following the discussion, Victoria led a four-wine tasting from Nobel Estates Wine.

You talk about how this book was very therapeutic for you to write. What part of the book was most therapeutic?

"This is the first time that I've talked about therapy in a bar, so bear with me," Victoria quipped. There were some experiences that were quite difficult for her growing up, as well as the abuse and sexism that Victoria faced while working in restaurants. So at first, she started writing as a form of therapy in order to get it all down and work through it.

"There is something very interesting about revisiting pain. We tend to, in order to survive, push it down and suppress it." Victoria said that it was healing to learn from her experiences.

In the book you talk about 'Franky's Love Cycle,' can you tell us what that is?

At the age of thirteen Victoria got her first job at a greasy spoon diner that was literally under the railroad tracks. She was a teenager who simply "didn't give a shit," and found it exhausting to muster up passion for every single guest. But Franky, who became a mentor, wanted to teach her his 'love cycle.' His advice was to find something to love in everyone—not something simple like loving someone's shoes, but to recognize the humanity in each person. And from that, treat them with empathy.

"Sometimes people are really hard to love. Especially when you are serving 300 of them a night, and you have to find a way to deliver real service. Genuine service, hospitality. Once you see someone as human and you see all of their soft and squishy parts, and how they can be  lovely and nice (even if they are being mean) then in return, you offer good hospitality."

She didn't expect it to be so fulfilling. "You feel good also, it becomes incredibly addictive and makes you feel a sense of purpose."

There is a quote in the book: "It's all bullshit, the title I mean. A somm is someone who sells wine in a restaurant. If you don't do that, you're not a somm." How do you feel about being a sommelier and the label? 

Victoria compared it to being a chef—you can become a chef by going to school and getting your credentials, or you can become a chef by getting a job as a chef and working your way up.

Historically in the sommelier world, the latter was the course in that there were no organizations that would give pins and certifications (it's a new thing). She chose to do both. As a young woman, she was not taken seriously without a piece of paper and felt that it was essential. But there are also a whole school of people who don't believe in those tests and examinations.

You talk about some great foods as well as some great regions. What has been the most extravagant thing you've ever ate?

Growing up she didn't have the most gourmand options. The first time she had sweetbreads, she saw them on a menu and thought they would be amazing. "But they weren't sweet at all. And that's because they are pancreas," Victoria said. "The wine world is very fun because there are dishes with a lot of history and it is very food-centric. There is a lot of discovery and it brings people together."

A common misconception is that white wine is for fish and red wine is for meat, but this is not always the case. When Victoria and her husband were travelling in the south of France, they were served little pieces of fried fish and she immediately thought that they would be perfectly paired with a crisp white wine. However, the tradition is to serve the dish with a really heavy sweet wine. It ended up being one of the best pairings that they've ever had.

"Wine is also an experience," she said. Her advice is to keep an open mind.

Once you've worked a harvest abroad, you see wine in a different way. Can you share what your key learnings were after working a harvest.

"Working a harvest is essentially where you go to a vineyard and you pick grapes and then you take those grapes and make them into wine. It sounds very romantic right?" Victoria asked. "I thought it was going to be fabulous, where I drink wine and eat cheese the whole time." The world of wine making is actually incredibly complex and back-breaking work. She also learned that there are a lot of decisions that can change not only the quality of the wine, but also how it tastes.

"In the US you can add up to 50 different ingredients in wine besides grapes. Some of the ingredients may be alarming, like fish bladder and horse hooves, or weird and gross like powdered tannins and silicone gel, like those little packets you get in your clothes that say 'do not eat.'"

Which chapter of your journey had the most impact on bringing you to the successful place you are today?

Her brother was forcibly going into a mental and he told her that "you have to sometimes do things that you don't really like for a short period of time, to get to a much better place far, far, away." He recognized a lot of similarities between Victoria's world of NYC fine dining and his experience.

Victoria thinks that the best decision she made was to leave the very cut-throat Michelin-starred world of fine dining in order to regroup and figure out what it was that she really wanted. "It doesn't matter what your journey is, sometimes you just need to take a step back," Victoria offered.

James wants to be a role model for other women in the industry. She did just that by becoming a leader in her own Michelin-starred restaurant.

What would you say was the biggest challenge of writing Wine Girl?

The biggest challenge was the message that she wanted to impart. "It's one thing to write for your own form of therapy, and another to release it to the world," she said. In taking her stories public, Victoria hopes that they will inspire both men and women to share their stories as well.

During the Kavanaugh trial she was so discouraged thinking that nobody wanted to hear women's stories, and that people didn't believe women. Victoria stopped writing for a few months and her agent encouraged her to pick up other works. She read Roxane Gay, Padma Lakshmi's op ed piece, and Educated by Tara Westover, and realized that just because some people aren't listening to women's stories, it doesn't mean that there isn't still a place for them. "The most important thing we can do is continue to share them." James encourages women to speak up because for so long she stayed silent.

What advice would you give a young person?

"Find an ally, find a mentor, find someone you can trust." Victoria went on to say that she was very isolated and felt like she was alone, but the more that she spoke to other women (and men), she realized that they felt quite the same.

It is important to Victoria to not only give back, but that people feel safe at her restaurant (at Cote they have a no-tolerance policy). She also feels that diverse voices should be heard. To address this, Victoria started a non-profit educational organization, Wine Empowered, that provides tuition-free wine classes to women and minorities in the hospitality industry.

What are some easy tricks of the trade that you could give us when sorting through a wine list?

"Wine lists can be very scary, there's a lot of fancy names on there that you don't know how to navigate them. Check to see if there is a sommelier in house to help. If so, you can point to a price point you are comfortable with."

You can also tell them about a wine that you love and ask them to suggest something similar. "Don't be afraid to engage with the sommeliers, they are there to provide a service and to help you. Don't be scared," Victoria said.

Wine Girl

At the age of 21, Victoria James became the youngest certified sommelier. Arriving at this distinction was no easy task—she endured sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and lower pay than her male counterparts.

Even though she was a certified sommelier, James was still continuously belated for her age and gender and still faced sexism and the abuse of power from not only her employers, but also her patrons.

Taking a step back from the years of humiliation in the restaurant industry—even from those that were of the highest regard—Victoria visited France to experience what she envisioned as the life of a sommelier. She experienced an authentic experience and discovered her true sense of purpose.

VICTORIA JAMES has worked in the restaurant industry since she was thirteen. Becoming the youngest certified sommelier in the country at age 21, Victoria has appeared on both Forbes and Zagat’s “30 Under 30” lists. She is also the author of Drink Pink: A Celebration of Rosé, which Harper Design published in 2017.

Victoria has worked at some of the most prestigious restaurants in New York City, including Marea and Aureole. Currently, she is the Beverage Director and partner at Cote, a Michelin-starred hot spot in the Flatiron district.

James currently resides in NYC with her husband and dog, Rocco.

Karma Brown in Conversation

Photo credit: Girl Well Read and Penguin Random House Canada. Do not use without written permission.

Karma Brown was in conversation with Marci Ien (The Social) about her captivating dual narrative novel, Recipe for a Perfect Wife, a thrilling novel about women daring to take control. Brown spoke about her inspiration and her writing process. A question and answer period, as well as a book signing followed.

MI: I love the dual narrative: two women that are sixty years apart. Please introduce us to Nellie and Alice.

KB: "There is Nellie, she's the quintessential 1950s housewife. On the surface her life looks nice and easy. She's cooking the meals for her husband and keeping house, and she seems happy.

"And then we have Alice in the present day who has been reluctantly moved from Manhattan into the suburbs, into this old house that requires a lot of work. She has recently left her job and she is feeling a little unsure as to what is next for her."

Karma elaborated; "It really is, at its core, a marriage book. It is looking at these two women, sixty years apart, but what are the things that have been the same for them, and what are the struggles that they are each facing? So what are the similarities between despite the different eras and you know, have we come as far as we think we have as women and within our marriages? So, it is a story of these two very distinct women in these very distinct times, but there are a lot of crossover between them."

MI: There are many things that they have in common, one of which is the secrets that they are keeping from their partners.

Alice is 29 and doesn't know what she wants yet. She has had to leave her job—she is a career woman with great visions who thought at some point she would write a novel—to go along with her husband's plan. Because Alice is not bringing in an income, she assumes she's lost some of the power where making decisions are concerned and instead takes on a domestic role because that is what is expected of her. She is keeping a number of secrets and a result, makes poor choices throughout the story. "Part of it is that she is trying to figure out who she is, she's young." Karma said. 

Nothing is as it appears to be for either woman.

The Structure

Recipe for a Perfect Wife is a dual narrative. Nellie's chapters feature a recipe because that is her talent. In 1950, it was in the kitchen where women showed their power and their worth. Nellie was known for her dinner parties, her gardening, and her skills in the kitchen, but there was this woman trying to break out.

When Karma was writing this book she was thinking about her grandmother who loved to sing, she even sang on the radio in high school. But then she got married and had children and didn't sing anymore. Instead, she was a mother and a housewife—it was not an option to do both. Karma thought about all these women, like her grandmother, who had amazing talents and hopes. They were unable to really live them out because of the time they were living in and the expectations that were placed upon them. Nellie has a whole other side to her that is finding its way out throughout the story. 

Relationships

There are some strong female relationships in the book. Nellie has Miriam (the elderly neighbour) who has taken Nellie under her wing and is a mother figure—she protects and encourages her. In present day, Alice has befriended Miriam's daughter, Sally, who lives in Miriam's house. Sally is a modern woman who has never married and became a physician in a time where there weren't many women in medical school. Sally acts as an anchor for Alice. 

The characters in the book are all strong and by extension, feminists. Karma had a very clear vision of Nellie where she was sitting, smoking one of her Lucky cigarettes, and drinking lemonade with her cookbook and she wondered what Nellie's life looked like if you went beneath the surface. In some ways, she is very much a victim, but is not a victim throughout. These women are flawed and they make mistakes, but were able to find their power and make their own choices.

Research

A journalist by trade, Karma did a lot of research which extended into the copyediting process—things that she didn't get exactly right. She read old magazine articles and watched a lot of home economic videos from the fifties so that she could see what girls were learning in school in order to prepare them for becoming proper housewives. Jennifer Robson (author of The Gown) is a brilliant historian and was an invaluable resource for Brown. 

Each of Alice's chapters open with a piece of advice or a tip for wives/women and they are all vintage quotes. Karma pointed out that they are all "pretty depressing" and are essentially all about making your husband happy. 

MI: Did you set out on a path when writing this book? 

KB: "I just wanted to write these two women's stories and have this cookbook—I have some old cookbooks that I grew up with in my family and I love them and I love the notations. I have picked up a few that are not from my family just to look through and see the notations that people put in their cookbooks.

"I love the idea of having these women connected. I wanted [the house] to feel like another character because it was holding secrets from the past and the present and I loved the idea of the house being part of the story. 

"It was a secret book, I mean I was working on [it] between contracts and no one really knew about it and I just had this amazing freedom to write it however it wanted to be written. I'm really lucky with how it turned out."  

Sally sat up straighter, put on an animated face, and waggled a finger the way Alice assumed her mother must have. “She said, 'Sally, the hardest question we have to ask ourselves in this life is, Who am I?' Ideally, we answer it for ourselves, but be warned that others will strive to do it for you—so don’t let them.” Is there a story behind that quote?

Karma said that this quote has resonated with so many and a popular topic that everyone wants to talk about. 

The story behind the quote is that while she was baking, she was watching Quantico and in the episode, the main character was struggling with some things in her life—she learned some secrets from her past that she hadn't been aware of—and someone said to her "you need to decide who you want to be." Karma thought that this was exactly what Sally needs to say to Alice in this scene. She also mentioned that this was added in a later edit. "It's so perfect for the story. It's true for everyone. Who am I? Who do I want to be? What's imprortant to me? How can I make sure that I am doing the things I need to be doing to be true to that? It is a hard question to ask and to know the answer to. And I think it changes." 

Title

Karma said that the titles for her books have always changed. She sent this book to her group of author friends and Recipe for a Perfect Wife was the title of the early draft and everyone loved it! "It resonates so well with people."

MI: What's next?

KB: "All I can say is that it will be another dual narrative, set in present day and the 1970s. Two women, again, and there will be some secrets. And it will be a little dark again, like this one...set in the Adirondacks."

Recipe for a Perfect Wife 

Alice Hale has left not only her career in publicity, but the city she loves, and finds herself in the suburbs attempting to write a novel. In the basement of her fixer upper century home, she uncovers a well-loved cookbook and within its pages, there are notations and handwritten letters. She comes to learn that they are written by the previous home owner, Nellie Murdoch, to her mother.

Feeling inspired, and an affinity towards Nellie, Alice starts cooking from her recipes and wearing vintage clothing. As she experiments with the tried-and-true recipes, she uncovers a dangerous side to Nellie's marriage and comes to the realization that she too is unhappy with the pressures that are also in her relationship. Alice begins to take control of her life and like Nellie, arms herself with some secrets of her own.

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KARMA BROWN is an award-winning journalist and author of the bestsellers Come Away With Me, The Choices We Make, In This Moment, and The Life Lucy Knew. In addition to her novels, Karma's writing has appeared in publications such as Redbook, SELF, and Chatelaine.

Brown lives just outside Toronto, Canada with her husband, daughter, and their adorably handsome labradoodle, Fred. 

#HarperPresents: An Evening with Kelly Rimmer

Photo credit: Girl Well Read and HarperCollins. Do not use without written permission.

#HarperPresents hosted an evening with Kelly Rimmer at their beautiful office in downtown Toronto at the Bay Adelaide Centre.

Kelly came all the way from Australia to talk about her new novel, Truths I Never Told You, and was interviewed by Kristi Reilly, Indigo's head fiction buyer.

Do you find your writing process has changed from book one to now, book ten?

"It has. Yes," Kelly said. "So I very quickly figured out that I'm not the kind of writer that can just start writing and hope for the best. I really am the kind of person who needs to plan out what is going to unfold."

Some of her author friends don't have any kind outline and just kind of "pop out their books" and that's not how she works. Kelly submits a very long outline, she's definitely more of a planner.

How far in advance are you at the planning stage before you get to the book stage?

Before Kelly writes the first part of the book, she knows what is going to happen however, this book was kind of unique because she couldn't figure out how to join up the various elements (postpartum depression, referendum that happened in Seattle, and a complicated family dynamic). But it finally came together when she was out walking her dogs. Kelly was listening to a podcast when the missing piece came to her—the podcast was about dementia—so she raced home and twenty minutes later had her outline. "And what is in the book is pretty much what is in the outline. That doesn't always happen and that makes this book a bit special."

She also drew upon her own siblings for inspiration. They are very close and devoted to each other, but when they are all together they give each other "a bit of ribbing."

What do you find interesting about exploring stories that take place in the past?

This is Kelly's third historical fiction book (she has written a lot of contemporary novels).

Ideas are more interesting to her versus writing about a specific era. She wanted Truths I Never Told You to be about the ways that expectations of women had changed over the years (or not) and what it was like between WWII and the pill being readily available.

When Kelly was researching the book, she was at a dinner party where a discussion took place about how the pill has impacted women socially and culturally, and how contraception has changed the lives of women in general.  The actual topic itself is what she found fascinating, and the time period just happens to be historical.

Is historical fiction a genre you read yourself?

Kelly is attracted to covers, especially historical fiction covers because they are "glamorous and eye-catching." She said that she is more drawn to the concepts and covers versus a particular genre.

Although the book takes place in years past, the story is applicable today and feels more familiar and relatable than other historical fiction. Was that intentional?

"Yes. So part of the reason for the dual timelines, the 1996 narrative is a much more familiar setting to us and not a lot has actually changed in terms of mental health since 1996 compared to 1959. So we are talking about it a bit more but... And 1996 is actually when postpartum depression was recognized as a specific disorder. We have a name for it now, we know that it is a medical thing. So we've made made steps in the right direction, but we still have such a long way to go."

Today is #BellLetsTalk day in Canada—it is all about destigmatizing mental illness. Obviously postpartum depression plays a huge part in Truths I Never Told You, did you end in 1996 because so much has changed?

"If you had asked me that question before I did the research for the book, I probably would have said yes!"

Before sending the first draft off to her editor, she was reading it over and the "heart" was missing. Kelly put a call out on her personal Facebook asking if anyone would like to share their stories of postpartum depression with her, or know someone that would. There were so many responses that she couldn't interview them all. This included some of her closest friends—they were suffering in front of her and she didn't even know.

"One in five women have postpartum depression after a birth. I didn't not realize how immediate that pain was in my own circle, in my own life. Things have changed, but not enough."

The family support in the book and the family dynamic was a huge part of it. You spoke about how your siblings very much mirrored the siblings. Were there direct comparison between the people you wrote about and the people in your life?

"No. That would be good a test though," Kelly quipped. She wanted to write about a family that are all successful in their own way. Education was very important to them growing up because their father had raised them to value education.

The closeness and playfulness is what is based on her siblings.

You also mentioned that there might not have been as much progress in women's mental health, is there anything that you found either particularly shocking in the past, or particularly shocking because we haven't made a lot of progress today?

"Something that I hadn't thought about until I was writing the book is the stories that we tell ourselves about motherhood." Social media paints an unrealistic picture of motherhood and family—that's it's a happy ever after when in fact, it's really hard work. People are suffering on their own because they can't share their own reality and experience. She hadn't considered the shame surrounding this.

"There's parts of our lives that we don't share freely, and some of that is because we are each individuals. But some of that is because, I think, is that we have a picture of how it should be and if it doesn't match up, we don't ask if that's how it is for other people."

Isolation was the common thread through all of the interviews that she conducted. It was the loneliness that came up again and again, and it blew her away.

Do you have a favourite word or phrase?

"I definitely abuse some. And very, very good copyeditors take them out before you see them," Kelly said laughing. Words that represent family, love, connection and affection—warm words that capture that softness between us are are probably her favourite.

As this is your tenth book, did you find this one was easier or harder to write compared to others?

"Every new book is a new chance to fail," Kelly said laughing. "Every time a new book comes out, you are exposing some whole new piece of work. I understand my own process a little bit better now, but I don't think the writing is getting any easier. Every new book is a new challenge. It's still hard. It's still scary."

After ten books, is there one that is your favourite, or that you are most proud of?

"It's usually the one I've just finished! There is one that does stand out: The Things We Cannot Say." Kelly had wanted to write it for a decade and it is inspired by her grandparents. Although she admitted all of her books are all special in their own way.

Truths I Never Told You releases April 14th in Canada.

Truths I Never Told You

From the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say comes a poignant novel about the fault in memories and the lies that can bond a family together—or tear it apart.

With her father recently moved to a care facility for his worsening dementia, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked. She’s even more shocked at what’s behind it—a hoarder’s mess of her father’s paintings, mounds of discarded papers and miscellaneous junk in the otherwise fastidiously tidy house.

As she picks through the clutter, she finds a loose journal entry in what appears to be her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing their mother died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker. Beth soon pieces together a disturbing portrait of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and a husband who bears little resemblance to the loving father Beth and her siblings know. With a newborn of her own and struggling with motherhood, Beth finds there may be more tying her and her mother together than she ever suspected.

Exploring the expectations society places on women of every generation, Kelly Rimmer explores the profound struggles two women unwittingly share across the decades set within an engrossing family mystery that may unravel everything they believed to be true.

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KELLY RIMMER is the USA Today bestselling women's fiction author of ten books that have been translated into more than 20 language.

Rimmer lives in rural Australia with her family and fantastically naughty dogs, Sully and Basil.

#HarperPresents: Holiday Cookie Decorating at the Toronto Christmas Market

Photo credit: Girl Well Read and #HarperPresents. Do not use without written permission.

What better way to get in the holiday spirit than with holiday cookie decorating at the world famous Toronto Christmas Market in the Distillery Historic District?

Karen Schaler—known as 'Christmas Karen' for all of her holiday themed books and films—was joined by Refinery 29's Carli Whitwell to talk about Karen's Netflix sensation A Christmas Prince, and her new novel Finding Christmas. 

A former military reporter, Karen was a hard news reporter (al-Qaeda, homeland security) who would pitch every day. She said that they were the saddest, hardest stories to hear. As cliché as it sounds, Karen wanted to make a difference and decided to try her hand at her new passion, travel journalism. She was a one-woman show with no photographer and no producer. It was just her!

When she was in Toronto doing her a travel show, she had a bit of a medical issue that required surgery, and she couldn't travel for three weeks. It was right around the holidays and Christmas movies became her therapy.

"It is a very formulaic story and surprisingly, they are difficult to write because you all know the ending," Karen said. So she studied the formula (the meet up, so many problems, the "near-miss" kiss, the "oh-no" moment when all is lost) and researched how commercials are timed. Her desire was to pull from her travel adventures and to tell love stories that anyone can watch.

In less than two years, Schaler has written original screenplays for Netflix, Hallmark, and Lifetime Christmas movies, as well as three Christmas novels for HarperCollins. Her original screenplay, A Christmas Prince, became one of Netflix’s most watched movies of all time. In 2018 she wrote the Hallmark original movie, Christmas Camp, and was then offered a book deal with HarperCollins. Even though she had the screen play for Christmas Camp, she wanted to do a novella (Christmas Camp Wedding: A Novella) and wanted to do a stand-alone book which turned out to be Finding Christmas (Karen also wrote the screenplay for it). Her newest movie, Rediscovering Christmas, will premier on Lifetime on December 15th, 2019.

"Finding Christmas was inspired by my dad." Schaler's parents split up when she was six and she grew up with very modest means. They didn't have a lot, but every Christmas, Karen's dad would set up a scavenger hunt for her to find her present. She didn't realize until she was older that it was the actual hunt that was the gift.

When Karen is writing, she doesn't describe someone by their hair colour, or their skin colour. This is done on purpose because she wants the reader to put themselves in the story and envision the character the way that they want to. "If I put diversity that might (in the Hollywood world) you know, throw somebody off. So if I don't say, it's kind of odd I think as an author, but I'm a new author and nobody told me I couldn't, so I don't say blonde hair, blue eyed."

Why do you think people want these movies right now?

"Things have been very divisive no matter what side you are on. There's so much anger, there's so much anxiety, there's so much uncertainty. We've gone backwards decades with some of our politics," Karen said. "A Christmas Prince is a safe place, it's an escape." You know you are getting your happily ever after.

Karen watches Hallmark for her wish fulfillment. She wanted to be part of that type of family, have all the beautiful decorations, and experience a happy ending because she didn't have any of that growing up. It is a connection—people are feeling a sense of family and these Christmas movies/novels are bringing people together. (As a side note: almost all of the Hallmark movies are shot in Canada and Karen is a proud member of the Writers Guild of Canada.)

In writing novels, Karen gets to be the director and the producer—they are in her own time. "When you can pick up a book and can be taken to that place, and you can be cozy with your mulled wine and your cookies. Novels will always be the ultimate number one storytelling in my mind." She went on to say that it is the purest way for an author to tell their story.

To end the afternoon, we all toasted with our mulled wine.

Finding Christmas

With all the glittering decorations, twinkling lights, snow angels, gingerbread men and mistletoe, Christmas is Emmie's first true love.

This year, she can't wait to share her favorite Christmas traditions with her boyfriend, Grant. Especially because she thinks he's "the one." So when Grant's hectic work schedule has him more "Bah Humbug" than "Ho, Ho, Ho," Emmie creates a holiday-themed scavenger hunt to help him find his Christmas spirit. At the end of the journey, Grant will arrive at the charming town of Christmas Point where she's planned a romantic weekend filled with holiday activities.

But Emmie's plan backfires—a mix-up has the wrong guy following her clues! Sam, a best-selling mystery writer, thinks that Emmie's clever Christmas riddles are from his agent to help him get over his case of writer's block.

When he arrives at Christmas Point and finds the stunned Emmie, he immediately feels she's someone special. But Emmie can't get past the fact that the wrong guy has shown up. Inspired by the charming town, Sam decides to make the best of it and convinces Emmie to join him in a little holiday fun while she waits for Grant.

When Grant finally does shows up, Emmie is disappointed that he's not enjoying the activities she so carefully planned and can't help wonder if he really is the one. She also can't get Sam out of her mind. With Christmas fast approaching, Emmie will need the magic of the season to help steer her in the direction of true love…

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KAREN SCHALER is a three-time Emmy Award–winning storyteller, author, screenwriter, journalist, and national TV host. She has written original screenplays for Netflix, Hallmark, and Lifetime Christmas movies, including the Netflix sensation A Christmas Prince.

Traveling to more than sixty-five countries as the creator and host of Travel Therapy TV, Karen is constantly inspired by the diverse people, places, and cultures she encounters. All of Karen’s stories are uplifting, filled with heart and hope.

Woman on the Edge Launch Party

Photo credit: Girl Well Read—do not use without written permission.

The event took place at Supermarket, a vibrant restaurant and bar located in the heart of Kensington Market in downtown Toronto. It was the perfect venue to celebrate Samantha M. Bailey's incredible debut.

Bailey is a delight! She's so gracious, and was a charming hostess—I couldn't be more happy for her success. Thank you to both Samantha and her inimitable team at Simon & Schuster Canada for inviting me to the launch party.

After six years of hard work, Woman on the Edge was published on November 26th. In this explosive novel, Bailey deftly alternates between Morgan's and Nicole's stories, past and present. One of the women is struggling with her grief and the desire to become a mother, the other is struggling with becoming a mother and the overwhelming desire to protect her child.

Nicole's anxiety is compounded by the guilt of a traumatic event in her past. Her angst is palpable, as are her fears of motherhood, and she becomes a shell of her former self—a far cry from the successful CEO of her own company. Morgan's life fell apart when her husband committed suicide as a result of being found guilty of embezzlement. She was left with the repercussions, including the police thinking that she was his accomplice. The two women are forever joined by tragedy, but what is their connection?

The character descension and strong pacing ratchet up the tension. Cleverly delivered in short, suspenseful chapters, readers will grapple with not only who to believe, but with also not being able to put the book down.

With the speed of a train, this incredible debut comes careening down the tracks. It is exhilarating, tense, and consuming.

Woman on the Edge

On a subway platform in Chicago, Morgan Kincaid’s life is changed forever when a stranger hands her a baby, then jumps in front of an oncoming train. Morgan can't understand why someone would give their child to a complete stranger and take their own life.

Unfortunately, Morgan's involvement runs deeper when she's considered a suspect in the death of the woman. But Morgan has never seen her before that day. With no witnesses to corroborate her version of events, things are not looking good.

To clear her name, Morgan tries to piece together Nicole Markham's final days. Nicole believed that she, and her new baby, were in danger. Or was she a new mother struggling with postpartum depression and paranoia? And what is Morgan's connection to all of this? As she gets closer to the truth, one thing become apparent, her life is also in danger.

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SAMANTHA M. BAILEY is a Toronto-based novelist, journalist, and freelance editor. Her work has appeared in NOW Magazine, The Village Post, and Oxford University Press, among other publications. She was a writer-in-residence for Kobo Writing Life at BookExpo America 2013. She is the co-founder of BookBuzz, a promotional and interactive author-reader event held in New York City and Toronto.

Woman on the Edge is her debut novel.

Erin Morgenstern: The Starless Sea by Ben McNally Books

Photo credit: Girl Well Read and Ben McNally Books.  Do not use without written permission.

Ben McNally Books and Doubleday Canada hosted Erin Morgenstern to discusses her new novel, The Starless Sea, the highly anticipated follow-up to her 2011 bestseller The Night Circus. The event took place in Toronto at the Isabel Bader Theatre where Morgenstern took the stage for a reading.  Erin was then joined by Ajay Fry to discuss the inspiration behind the book, her writing process, and answer questions from the audience.

Erin has special ties to Canada—she got her first passport to come to Toronto for The Night Circus book tour and she met her husband here. If she was to list her favourite things about Canada, half of them would be food!

Are you inspired by symbolism in including it, or do you find symbolism as you are writing?

"I knew I wanted to start with symbols for this one, partially because I like a very strong visual language and The Night Circus clearly has a very strong visual language and it has a colour scheme," Erin said. She also wanted the same for The Starless Sea, but not start with the colours, but with symbols. Erin created a running list of symbols she might use, and from there she focused on the key, the bee, and the sword which became the main motif. "Symbols are for interpretation and not definition."

What did you draw upon for inspiration?

"It's very much a book about stories and I though I was writing a book about books when I first started," Erin mused. She wanted to write a story about books and used this as her jumping off point. The idea of a story, as opposed to a book, is a malleable sort of thing. What is the story?

Your protagonist is someone who is interested in video games, were you trying to write a Choose Your Own Adventure type story?

It takes Erin a long time to figure out what exactly she is writing. She knew Zachary was a grad student and that he was studying something story related, but she wanted something different. This is where the game theory/game design piece comes in. The idea of which version of the story is the actual story (choices within choices) reminded Erin of the retelling of old stories or myths. The Starless Sea felt old and new at the same time (the video game element was the new feel).

How difficult is the editing process? 

Erin can't get overly attached to what she writes because there is a 50/50 chance of the material making it into the final version. "It allows me to write more and take more chances, where I can push things, and not settling on the first try." Her first draft is a trepidatious draft. Once the words are there, she can go back over it, make it stronger, and find the pieces that work—but during that process, she throws a lot away.

Where does The Starless Sea come from?

"I actually don't remember," Erin joked. She has a lot of imaginary architecture in her head and has always envisioned an underground libraryesque space. It is not an actual library because there are no librarians. "If it doesn't have a librarian, is it really a library?" There are bits and pieces that she wrote easily ten years ago—she didn't know where they were going, but that they belonged to this space. To come up with the narrative, Erin needed to take her time and explore the space and figure out who the people are that occupy said space and what their stories are.   

What is the most rewarding feedback you get?

"I feel like the most rewarding feedback is when people have tattoos." Erin admitted that even though she loves tattoos, that she doesn't have any because she doesn't have anything that she relates to/reacts to that strongly.

What sparked your fascination with stories to begin with?

Erin was an overactive, imaginative, artsy kid and so she gave Zachary one of the qualities that she had as a kid which was to read in her closet—she wanted to be that immersed in the work without distractions. She was also a theatre kid (creative theatre) and even got her degree in theatre. Erin studied light and design, acted and directed, and wanted to pursue theatre professionally. This has come in very handy when she is writing—she has a very theatrical vision about the way a room is lit, what is smells like, how she stages things, and she gets to play all the roles. It is more fun for her to approach it this way, but because Erin is very visual, she struggles finding the right words so that her readers can experience what she is seeing. Erin admitted to using thesaurus.com a lot.

Another thing she struggles with is the rhythm of the prose and how it needs to sound lyrical. "I don’t know what I’m doing with commas, but I know how it needs to sound."

What is that when you spend so much time doing a solitary thing and then go out and be face-to-face?

"Being alone with this book for so long in the imaginary space in my head, it takes on a life of its own." The book was very meaningful to Erin, but the point is for it to be read, and for the reader to have an experience with it. She can’t have that same experience with all of the false starts and things in her head, so she tries to imagine what the reader experiences, but that is individual and unique—each reader will have their own reactions.

What advice would have given yourself?

“Calm it down,” Erin quipped. Her advice to herself would be to strike the right balance because sometimes she writes for herself and sometimes she writes for the book.

When is your next book coming out?

Her next book is literally a 3,000 Word document of notes and weird phrases—it isn’t anything close to resembling a story.

Writing process

"You need to put the words on the paper, that’s the tricky part." She tricks her brain that the work is worth pursing by writing late at night (and sometimes she has wine). In the early stages, Erin says that you have to find a way to stop doubting yourself and viewing the writing as work. "I will pretend I’m not really working and work at odd times of the day, or really really late at night because my inner editor, my self-doubt voice, goes to bed before the rest of me," Erin said. "You have to play games with yourself and you have to figure out what works for your own personal process." She was always a reader before becoming a writer. A finished book is looks so nice and she thought that as a writer you would start and the beginning and write to the end and then stop. Change a few commas here and there. But that isn't how she works. "I think you don’t get to see the messy stages of the process, you don’t get to see the false starts, you can only hope that someone talks about them." When you go to a theatrical production, you know there was a rehearsal, or when you look at a painting you know there are many layers over sketches, but as a reader, you don’t see the process behind the finished product, it can only be imagined.

She writes in short vignettes that are self-contained. This comes in handy when she does revisions because she can omit whole parts and can layer different plot elements.

When in doubt, just add Ninjas!

How would you describe The Starless Sea?

"I thought I was writing a book about books and then it turned into a book about stories. But at its core it's a story about a guy names Zachary Ezra Rawlings who is a grad student in Vermont and when he was about 11, he found a magic painted door and if he had opened it, it would have led him to this magical space, and he didn't. What if you didn’t follow the rabbit down the rabbit hole? What if you didn't test the structural integrity of the back of your wardrobe? Do you think about that years later, does the rabbit haunt you?"

What does the editing process actually look like?

Erin starts with a letter from her editor (that makes her mad) of the big picture things that are not working. She reads through the letter twice and then she throws the letter away—if it is important enough, she will remember. She goes back into her document and starts with writing new things, the sections that need a rewrite. By focusing on the new material, it removes her from the existing material and she can be more objective with it and remove what isn't working.

Scribner is the program that Erin uses to write. It enables her to organize pieces of the story on a bite size level which makes it possible for her to be able to layer the new pieces over the old.

Final words

Erin thanked us all for coming. "Yay, Canada!" But also to Ben McNally Books which makes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in the book via the intersection of Bay and King.

The Starless Sea

A timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth.

What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

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ERIN MORGENSTERN is the author of the number-one national best seller of The Night Circus that has been sold around the world and translated into thirty-seven languages. She has a degree in theatre from Smith College.

Morgenstern lives in Massachusetts.

Lit on Tour: In Conversation with Jennifer Robson

Photo credit: Toronto International Festival of Authors and Girl Well Read.  Do not use without written permission.

As part of the Lit on Tour series, Jennifer Robson read from her newest enthralling novel, The Gown, which is about the real-life wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.

In conversation with professional costume designer, Delphine White, Robson spoke about her inspiration for the novel, the wedding gown, and her time in England. She even brought an embroidery sample she made to give context of the work that went into the dress. A question and answer period, as well as a book signing followed.

In the beginning of the novel, the women were working on the wardrobe for the Royal Family's visit to Australia.

How did the Royal Family justify new clothes? 

Quite simply, they didn't ask. They went on a grand tour of South Africa to cement their diplomatic relationships. In 1941, there was a clothing ration and you had to buy garments with coupons where you were given a one-time coupon for a summer wardrobe. The recovery period from this was felt for a long time.

"The Royal Wedding was used to lighten up," Jennifer said. 1947 was an exciting year for fashion (the house of Dior was founded). Fashion designer Norman Hartnell and Christian Dior had a relationship—he dressed the Queen Mum who always wore crinolines.

"Women from this time dressed stark, almost like they too were in the military with boxy, plain garments," Robson explained. "Dior was exciting, he was using yards of fabric in his skirts which could not be sold in England because they had too much fabric." His designs were very structured and featured the waist rather than hide it.

Elizabeth's gown was flattering—it was more defined at the waist and skimmed the more anxiety areas (hips) and aged her a little bit (she was only 21 when she got married). As dictated by the King, the gown did not have short sleeves. It was opposite to the Queen Mum's 1923 wedding gown which was rather shapeless and Robson described as resembling a pillowcase.

Hartnell was a conservative designer, but for the wedding gown, he used lots of embellishments and the train was fifteen feet long. Jennifer estimates that there were about 350 people involved in making the gown (which includes the fabric makers). There were also bridesmaids gowns to make, as well as gowns for the duchesses. 

For her research, Robson interviewed Betty Foster, the last surviving seamstress that worked on the Princess' wedding gown. Betty started her work day at 8:30 a.m. and worked until 6:00 p.m. After eight hours, there are diminished returns in that the peau de soie would mark if you were to make a mistake. Betty also worked on Greer Garson's gowns. (Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson, CBE, was a British-American actress who was popular during the Second World War, as one of America's top ten box office draws from 1942 to 1946.)

What was the timeline for making the gown?

"It was three months from [the] commission awarded to the wedding," Jennifer said. Betty told Robson that the timeline was reasonable, they were used to it. She also said the the 1953 Coronation gown was more important that the wedding gown. 

With the world's press at their doorstep, these women had tremendous pressure and coped extremely well under the circumstances.

Six different women were responsible for the embroidery on the gown, yet it looks like it was done with one hand. The women would not have had a pattern to work from, just sketches. There are also no known samples of the wedding gown in existence, just of the Coronation gown.

Symbolism

Hartnell was inspired after seeing Botticelli's La Primavera, and the gown is full of flowing lines, leaves, swags, and vines that are reminiscent of the painting. The Princess' gown also had symbols of rebirth, growth, and fertility (roses, orange blossom, ears of wheat). The star flower is the most noticed motif, as well as roses which symbolize purity and the monarch.

Elizabeth was originally going to wear her ATS uniform to get married in. The Princess became a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945. She was the first full-time female member of the Royal Family to join the Armed Services. During her time in the ATS, Princess Elizabeth learned to drive and to maintain vehicles.

Controversies 

How could she afford the gown? Even though she was the future Queen of England, the Princess did not have an unlimited budget. Wartime rationing was still in place for everyone, including the Royal Family. Jennifer explained that people started sending in their ration coupons, but legally they could not be used. The Princess' ladies-in-waiting opened the envelopes, wrote thank you notes, and sent them back. In addition to the coupons Princess Elizabeth had saved, the government ended up granting the bride 200 extra clothing coupons.  

There was also a debate as to where the silk worms were from—were they from the enemy, Japan, or from the ally, China? It was determined that they were indeed from China.

10,000 seed pearls were imported from the US, and they had to pay the duties on the pearls.

How much impact did Elizabeth have?

Robson explained that it was actually the King and Queen Mum who decided on the design of the gown based on the ten sketches that Hartnell did.

The Gown

London, 1947: Besieged by the harshest winter in living memory, burdened by onerous shortages and rationing, the people of postwar Britain are enduring lives of quiet desperation despite their nation’s recent victory. Among them are Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin, embroiderers at the famed Mayfair fashion house of Norman Hartnell. Together they forge an unlikely friendship, but their nascent hopes for a brighter future are tested when they are chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime honor: taking part in the creation of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding gown.

Toronto, 2016: More than half a century later, Heather Mackenzie seeks to unravel the mystery of a set of embroidered flowers, a legacy from her late grandmother. How did her beloved Nan, a woman who never spoke of her old life in Britain, come to possess the priceless embroideries that so closely resemble the motifs on the stunning gown worn by Queen Elizabeth II at her wedding almost seventy years before? And what was her Nan’s connection to the celebrated textile artist and holocaust survivor Miriam Dassin?

Robson takes us inside the workrooms where one of the most famous wedding gowns in history was created. Balancing behind-the-scenes details with a sweeping portrait of a society left reeling by the calamitous costs of victory, she introduces readers to three unforgettable heroines, their points of view alternating and intersecting throughout its pages, whose lives are woven together by the pain of survival, the bonds of friendship, and the redemptive power of love. For this novel, she traveled to England to speak with the last surviving woman who worked on Queen Elizabeth's gown and was greatly inspired by all the stories the seamstress remembered.

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JENNIFER ROBSON is the internationally bestselling author of Somewhere in France, After the War Is Over, Moonlight Over Paris, and Goodnight from London. She studied French literature and Modern History as an undergraduate at King’s University College at Western University, then attended Saint Antony’s College at the University of Oxford, where she obtained her doctorate in British economic and social history. While at Oxford, she was a Commonwealth Scholar and SSHRC Doctoral Fellow.

Robson lives in Toronto with her husband and children. 

Indigo: In Conversation with Margaret Atwood

Author Photo Credit: Toronto Star. All other photos by Girl Well Read—do not use without written permission.

Indigo Books & Music hosted acclaimed Canadian author, Margaret Atwood, in conversation at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto. She discusses her new book, The Testaments, a sequel to her 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, with CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti.

Margaret Atwood's dystopian masterpiece, The Handmaid's Tale, has become a modern classic and now she brings the iconic story to a dramatic conclusion in this riveting sequel.

Can you believe that The Handmaid's Tale was written 35 years ago? I read it the first time when I was in high school and remember being blown away.

What happens next?

Simply put, she didn't know. The Testaments is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale and Atwood realized that she couldn't continue in the voice of the main character from The Handmaid's Tale. This book is narrated by Aunt Lydia (a character from the previous novel); Agnes, a young woman living in Gilead; and Daisy, a young woman living in Canada.

Aunt Lydia makes a two-dimensional appearance in The Handmaid's Tale, and she reappears in The Testaments. In this book, she is busy writing a manuscript, counting on the fact that no one will actually read it. Atwood said that she didn't know how important Aunt Lydia would become. "She is a good person that does bad things." In the TV series, Aunt Lydia is played by the inimitable Ann Dowd.

We move away from Gilead—the 80s happened, 9/11 happened, there was a financial meltdown, things became unstable. Atwood wanted to visit Gilead in the future as a crumbling society.

Popularity

These books have taken on a life of their own. When Atwood sees people dressed up like Handmaids, it is a visual nod to her work, however her wish is "for it not to be relevant."

How do you create?

Margaret said that she reads a lot, including ads and newspapers. She uses the library and is aware of what is going on in the world. Anger is not her downfall, it can be motivating.

She is working on something new, but would rather not say at the moment.

Cover

The jacket was designed by Noma Bar and there are four women (at first glance it appears that there are only two). When asked about the cover design process, Atwood admitted she was involved in the process (most authors are not) and that at one time she was a poster designer.

In closing

While Atwood’s works have both delighted and disturbed readers, she does consider herself a positive person. She spoke about the climate crisis and the challenges we are facing; "Everyone should realize that the climate change is a real thing, and that who you should vote for is not the person who says it’s not happening."

The Testaments

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.

Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.

As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

Meet Camilla Gibb

Photo credit: Penguin Random House Canada, Girl Well Read, and Aurora Library. Do not use without written permission.

Camilla Gibb's widely praised novel is a poignant and intensely atmospheric look beyond the stereotypes of Islam. At this event, Camilla provided the back story of this amazing work.

Gibb spent 15 years researching Sweetness in the Belly whose roots began to form 1994-95 when she was was studying for her PhD in social anthropology.

Originally from England, Camilla grew up in a family with a rigid, ex-military father who was rarely employed (he was even thrown out of the Army). She was told by her father that religion was invented because humans were weak so she grew up having what she calls "spiritual envy." Gibb's parents divorced when she was 10 and her 40-year-old mother had a passionate affair with a 28-year-old Armenian actor who had grown up in Lebanon—although not a Muslim, he spoke Arabic. Camilla said that he brought joy into her world with his zest for life, and piqued her curiosity about the Muslim world.

"I was curious enough that once I got to university I started studying not only anthropology but also middle eastern studies," Camilla explained. "I knew that I wanted to learn the language, so in my third year of undergraduate at the University of Toronto, I went to Cairo and spent a year living in this heaving, seething metropolis of 18 centuries of history and it was a vastly overwhelming place where I couldn’t have felt smaller." She was asked why she wasn't Muslim, she felt that she had lost the gene for faith.

When Gibb returned to Toronto, it took three months for her to be able to look up—she had shielded herself and been guarded in Cairo. While studying at U of T, she met a young Ethiopian woman who had come to Canada as a refugee. The woman shared her experiences with Gibb exposing her to that part of the world and the culture of Ethiopia.

In 1992, Camilla went to Oxford. It was at this time that the government of Ethiopia was overthrown. Her professor worked in Sudan/Ethiopia and encouraged her to go to Harrar (the fourth most holiest city). She did end up visiting and lived there for a year.

Gibb longed to return to Ethiopia. She also wanted to write about her experience but didn't know how. In 2000, while in Banff, she got the idea about Lilly going back to Harar. Camilla also cited the film Hideous Kinky as another seed. Gibb spent three years writing and then took the book to her editor at DoubleDay who asked "Who is Lilly as a grown up?" This became the version we know (and love) with the first draft providing the backstory.

In 2005, the book was optioned for film which took Camilla back to Ethiopia and back to the women who also served as inspiration—she experienced wonderful reunions with friends. Unfortunately, the film (which premiered at TIFF) is not without controversy: an early synopsis described Lilly as a "white Ethiopian" woman portrayed by Dakota Fanning and this fuelled a cultural appropriation debate on Twitter.

Although the story is located in a historic and cultural context, it stems from Gibb's imagination and offers readers an emotional experience.

Sweetness in the Belly

After her hippie British parents are murdered, Lilly is raised at a Sufi shrine in Morocco. As a young woman she goes on pilgrimage to Harar, Ethiopia, where she teaches Qur'an to children and falls in love with an idealistic doctor. But even swathed in a traditional headscarf, Lilly can't escape being marked as a foreigner. Forced to flee Ethiopia for England, she must once again confront the riddle of who she is and where she belongs.

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CAMILLA GIBB is the author of five novels: Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life, Sweetness in the Belly, The Beauty of Humanity Movement and This is Happy. She has also been the recipient of the Trillium Book Award, the City of Toronto Book Award and the CBC Canadian Literary Award and shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Camilla has a Ph.D. from Oxford University and is an adjunct faculty member of the graduate creative writing programs at the University of Toronto and the University of Guelph-Humber. She is currently the June Callwood Professor in Social Justice at Victoria College, University of Toronto.