An Evening with Romain Puértolas

Last Wednesday evening, Amelia and I headed down to the Arts House, where Kenneth was moderating Romain Puértolas's World Lit session. Having read and loved the book, we just had to attend and, of course, we were there to support Kenneth as well.

When Mr Puértolas asked how many people in the room had actually read the book about five, including myself, put up their hands. I thought it rather strange that people would show up to a literary event without actually having read the book in the first place.



Kenneth did a great job as always coming up with insightful questions and Mr Puértolas regaled us with stories of his previous jobs and David Copperfield's successful attempt at blocking his youtube channel which revealed the secrets to the magician's illusions. One thing that astounds me is that it takes the author about two and a half weeks to complete a manuscript that's close to the final draft. 

Though this is the first novel that he's had published, he has eight in the pipeline. His second novel will be out later this year, but we've got to wait for the English translation. What's more Fakir has already been green-lit as a major hollywood movie.



OK, can some of his good luck please rub off on to me? I mean I've been doing this for well over a decade and I've never come close to that level of success.

At the end of the session, fans lined up to get their books signed. I, of course, had to shamelessly give him a copy of A Day with the Duchess for his kids. All in all, It was the most enjoyable World Lit session that I've been too!