'When my novel Uncertain Light was published, I packed a copy along with my toothbrush, pyjamas and a change of clothes, and set out to see if I could help it find readers.' So begins Marion Molteno's journey. In this unusual memoir she draws us in to the process of writing a novel, getting it published, and taking it into the world - to tiny literary festivals in small English towns and huge ones in India and Pakistan, in private homes and local libraries, tents, chapels and a palace. With an ability to find significance in the ordinary and the extraordinary alike, she describes encounters with readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, poets, festival organisers and volunteers - and sometimes people whose lives uncannily echo those of the characters in her books. Weaving through these vignettes is her inner journey as a writer, as she reflects on the experiences that gave rise to her other prize-winning novels. We get glimpses of a life - as student activist, teacher, political refugee, international aid worker, mother, grandmother - and at every turn rediscover what connects us to others, wherever they are.
Other books by Marion Molteno
Marion Molteno’s fiction reflects the breadth of her life experience. She grew up in South Africa at a time of political conflict, spent eight years in Zambia, pioneered educational projects in multi-ethnic communities in Britain, and has worked for Save the Children across Asia and Africa.
Her novel If you can walk, you can dance was awarded the Commonwealth Writers Prize for the best book in the Africa region and was selected for the top 20 books in the Women’s Writers Festival in New Zealand. A Shield of Coolest Air, set among Somali asylum seekers, won the David St John Thomas Award for fiction. Somewhere More Simple explores tensions in an island community off the coast of Cornwall. She has won prizes for her short stories, and her collection, A Language in Common, has been translated into five languages. She has written and lectured on language, education and international development, and edits the work of Ralph Russell on Urdu literature.
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