Henrietta Rose-Innes's Blog, page 7

The Second Law – free to read

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My story “The Second Law” is now *free* to read on the Galley Beggar Press website. Yet again I

demonstrate my precog powers, as this story clearly predicts the fidget spinner. I should get paid more for this stuff.

More stories from last year’s Galley Beggar Prize longlist are all online on the excellent site, as well as details on entering this year’s competition – which you should do if you possibly can. I foresee a good one.

I was in the shop mostly to warm myself – the mall was heated, the weather bitter – but I also had a dumb, nostalgic fondness for places like this. Miniature pool tables, World’s Greatest Dad mugs, aprons fitted with plastic boobs. That kind of thing. I was playing with the old-school executive toys, making the spheres of a Newton’s cradle clack back and forth, when the store assistant came over.

“Something for your boyfriend?”

Cheeky, I thought. He was a spruce young guy in a royal-blue polo shirt, tucked in to show off a neatly solid chest. Ryan was sewn on the breast pocket.

“No boyfriend,” I said.

“No? That’s a shame.”

Caterpillars make the best pets

Here’s a lovely piece in praise of caterpillars from Patrick Barkham in the Guardian – with a nod to Nineveh, noting the “welcome appearance for that rare species, the humane pest controller”.

I’d forgotten what fabulous pets they are: busy, and oddly personable. The forest school class loved having caterpillars trotting up their arms, and solicitously ensured they were returned to their nettles. At home, we pick fresh nettles every day for our four small tortoiseshells. It’s splendid to watch them dive into the fresh leaves with all the ardour of a hungry dog at its bowl.

 

Green Lion: “Certainly not forgettable”

The first UK review of Green Lion came out a little while ago on The Bookbag. The verdict? “This is not necessarily a likeable book, but it’s certainly not a forgettable one.” – what more could you ask for?

Rose-Innes’ animals have a liquid quality, slipping between boundaries, often unseen but felt or heard, frequently doing the unexpected … the depth of Rose-Innes’ characterisation makes ‘Green Lion’ a satisfying read. Con’s relationship with Mark and his family, which shifts between envy, admiration, dislike, alienation and pity is intricately woven and intensely sad, the claustrophobia of Con’s mother’s cluttered house is vivid, and the ending is haunting.

Ghosts in the Ravine

I recently did a little piece for British Airways’ High Life inflight magazine for their “Hometown” series – about the elusive caracals on Table Mountain, and writing about home while far away, and how a rooikat popped up in my novel Green Lion (out in the UK in August). It’s kind of fluffy (furry?) but I like it. Thanks to Cape Town’s fantastic Urban Caracal Project for their inspiring work.

The ever-so-fab @HenriettaRI is also featured in this months High Life magazine pic.twitter.com/rnP9G814A2

— Ryno Posthumus (@taxi2venus) May 17, 2017

Green Lion: some questions, some answers

I did a little Q&A about my novel Green Lion, which is coming out in the UK in August from Aardvark Bureau / Gallic Books.

… as humans grow estranged from the natural world and as we lose more and more wild species, we seem increasingly to mythologise nature. We value the images of animals and long for almost mystical communion with them. This feels connected in a profound way to the human condition of loss and desire for connection, and our helpless wish to preserve the things we love from death.

Read the while interview here.

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Story time in Greenwich

The Greenwich Book Festival programme is out and tickets are available for sale. I’ll be taking part in the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize event on the evening of 27 May:

Readings from the longlisted, shortlisted and winning authors of the 2016/17 award, as well as a panel event hosted by the Guardian Books journalist Chris Power. The talk will be preceded by an open surgery, where the audience are welcome to talk to the writers and judges about their own writing, as well as meet the judges for the 2017/18 Prize.

I’ll be reading from my longlisted story The Second Law. The full festival programme for 26/27 May can be found here.

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Urban disquiet in Nineveh: city-dwellers under stress

Nineveh is included in a fascinating list of five recent international novels dealing with “City-Dwellers Under Stress … urban disquiet and the evolving tensions of 21st century city living” (along with Ge Fei’s The Invisibility Cloak, Kelly Luce’s Pull Me Under, Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People).

Of Nineveh, Tobias Carroll writes:

“Rose-Innes does a fantastic job of creating a sense of the tactile,

the grotesque … and the constancy of change. Nineveh includes a

handful of moments in which the destruction of green spaces is

lamented – but, like Katya’s ostensibly humane techniques, paradoxes

abound … And, as befits a novel whose central character understands

structures and strata better than most, the language here is both

insightful and evocative.”

Everyone a Termite: Nineveh in the TLS

I was very happy to see Nineveh reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement. “A churning hive, everyone a termite, all borders and boundaries eaten through … the novel has a powerful ecological strand.” Link here (paywalled).

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Green Lion comes to Norwich

If you’re in Norwich on April 10, I’ll be reading from Nineveh and my forthcoming novel Green Lion at the excellent Cafe Writers, alongside award-winning poet Elisabeth Sennitt Clough. Join us at 7pm at Take 5, 17 Tombland. Admission £2, and there’ll be an open mic. Facebook invitation and more information here.

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Mysteries Overseas: an evening with women writers

“Strange, uncanny, and downright criminal” – if this sounds appealing and you’re in London on 28th March, come along to “Mysteries Overseas: An Evening with Acclaimed International Women Writers“. I’ll be there with authors Johana Gustawsson (France), Andrée A. Michaud (Canada) and Teresa Solana (Spain), chatting about our work.

Q: What could be finer than spending an evening in the company of a fiercely intelligent, international female writer, musing over the art of creating mystery and suspense in pen?

A: Doing so alongside not one but four critically acclaimed authors, whose hometowns span three continents of the globe.

Audience Q&A, wines! London – Tottenham Court Road Waterstones, 18:30.

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