I am excited to be here with another guest post for your reading enjoyment today. :) Please help me by giving Leonora a warm welcome to the blog!
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Hello
and thank you for inviting me to your book blog. I am happy to be in any place
where there are book lovers and writers and readers!
I
would like to talk a little today about the country where my debut novel is set
– Ukraine.
I
came to the country of Ukraine knowing nothing about it, and was entirely swept
away by the beauty, the warmth, the culture, the food, the laughter, the
resilience, the intelligence of the people. It is a country which goes very
deep into your heart. I ended up living there for 10 years, in which time I
explored the cities and the countryside, and made many friends.
I
decided to set my debut novel there, in part so that I could create a window
for people to get a glimpse of what a beautiful country it is. My main
character lives in a small village in the countryside in the western part of
Ukraine, near to Lviv. At the beginning of the book, we see the spring time,
when everything is breathtakingly abundant and you can feel the plants and
flowers growing around you. The noises of the village are special too – the
dogs barking, cockerels crowing, children laughing, the babulyas (grandmothers)
gossiping, the market humming, the toads cackling, the goats bleating. It’s a
time of very intense life and it is especially shocking after the long, long
winter, which lasts from November to March, with long periods of deep snow.
The
other season I had in my book was the winter, when my main character is very isolated
and her life has fallen apart. The winter is the absolute opposite to the
abundant spring in Ukraine, and life really slows down or stops during these
months. There are weeks when snow falls constantly, and just leaving the house
is incredibly difficult. You have to live off the foods you have saved and
prepared – pickled vegetables; salted meat; soups. It is a strange and
reflective time, but also has its own amazing beauty.
I
tried in my novel “The Woman Behind the Waterfall” to create an impression of
the beauty of Ukraine, and of what village life is really like. My deepest hope
is that it will spark interest in this wonderful country and lead people to
find out more about it, or even visit. There is so much there to discover!
Leonora Meriel is the author of “The
Woman Behind the Waterfall” (published October 2016, Granite Cloud), called “an
intoxicating world” by Kirkus Reviews; “a timeless and universal novel” by
Goodreads reviewers, “a strange and beautiful novel” by writer Esther Freud.
Her upcoming novel “The Unity Game” will be published in May 2017.
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More about the book:
More about the book:
Title The
Woman Behind the Waterfall
Author Leonora
Meriel
Genre Literary
Fiction, Magic Realism
Publishing Date October
1, 2016
Page count, hardback 234
pages
Page count, paperback 262
pages
Standalone/Series Standalone
Novel Synopsis
Heartbreak
and redemption in the beauty of a Ukrainian village
For seven-year old Angela, happiness is exploring the lush
countryside around her home in western Ukraine. Her wild imagination takes her
into birds and flowers, and into the waters of the river.
All that changes
when, one morning, she sees her mother crying. As she tries to find out why,
she is drawn on an extraordinary journey into the secrets of her family, and
her mother’s fateful choices.
Can Angela lead her mother back to happiness before her innocence is
destroyed by the shadows of a dark past?
Beautiful,
poetic and richly sensory, this is a tale that will haunt and lift its readers.
Author Bio
Leonora Meriel grew up in
London and studied literature at the University of Edinburgh and Queen’s
University, Ontario. She worked at the United Nations in New York, and then for
a law firm. In 2003 she moved to Kyiv, where she founded and managed Ukraine’s
largest Internet company. She studied at Kyiv Mohyla Business School and earned
an MBA. During her years in Ukraine, she learned to speak Ukrainian and
Russian, witnessed two revolutions and got to know an extraordinary country at
a key period of its development. In 2008, she returned to her dream of being a
writer, and completed The Woman Behind the Waterfall, set in a village
in western Ukraine. Her second book, The Unity Game will be released in
May 2017.
Press & Reviews
“Readers looking for a classic tale of love and loss will be rewarded
with an intoxicating worlds” - Kirkus
Reviews
“A strange and beautiful novel” – Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky, Peerless Flats, Mr Mac and Me
“A literary work of art” – Fiona Adams, Richmond Magazine
“Timeless and universal novel” – Goodreads & Amazon
reviewer
“A beautiful,
thought-provoking exploration of family ties” – MP, Amazon reviewer
Links
Goodreads
Amazon
US
https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Behind-Waterfall-Leonora-Meriel/dp/1911079239
Amazon
UK
www.amazon.co.uk/Woman-Behind-Waterfall-Leonora-Meriel/dp/1911079239
Amazon
US author page
https://www.amazon.com/Leonora-Meriel/e/B01LYU9KTO/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Amazon
UK author page
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leonora-Meriel/e/B01LYU9KTO/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/leonoramerielwriter
Twitter
- @leonora_meriel
https://twitter.com/leonora_meriel
Website
http://www.leonorameriel.com
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Thanks for being here today!
Happy Reading!
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