“Going into the desert evokes ancient biblical and literary traditions: the Israelites wander in the wilderness for forty years, Elijah flees into the desert, and John the Baptist emerges from the desert. Like these examples, the desert experience is depicted as a test for Zoe, both a personal trial and a professional one” (Joseph Pivato in his review of “The Afrikaner)
Life, Possibilities, and the Kalahari’s Many Secrets in The Afrikaner by Arianna Dagnino
Join Arianna
for a chat and book signing of “The Afrikaner” (Guernica, Toronto, 2019)
WHERE: Indigo Bay & Bloor Bookstore, 55 Bloor St W, Toronto
WHEN: May 15, 11.00 am-3.00 pm.
Bring the sun if you can!
I will bring the chocolates!
Cheers, Arianna
Here is the BOOK TRAILER of “The Afrikaner”: a story under African skies that has asked to be told.
Check it out!
Tags: Canadian literature, Canadian writers, novel, novelist, Vancouver, South Africa, fiction writing, book trailer, film, filmic transposition
#theafrikaner
Everything seemed so terribly wrong… but I was wrong!
Bruce Chatwin’s memorable question came to my mind when, two days ago, I looked at myself standing at the entrance of IndigoSpirit Mount Sinai Hospital bookstore where I was supposed to sign copies of my novel “The Afrikaner”.
The bookstore is indeed located in the lobby of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. As much as I think that providing books to people needing to evade from pain, grief, and anguish might be a good idea, that day I couldn’t really see myself promoting my book there. I watched people pass by and all I could think of was that they might be too sick, too desperate, too lost to be bothered by an unknown writer and her unknown book. But I was wrong. The moment I engaged those passers-by in conversation, I understood how in fact my luring them into a world of words and African landscapes worked for them as a balm, a sudden respite from their troubles, and an unexpected communion with another soul.
It was a heart-warming experience. Among the people who bought the book and asked me to sign it were: a lady who had just been told she had got rid of her cancer, a doctor who had worked in emergency in Africa, a retired nurse who still felt part of Mount Sinai community, an Italian psychiatrist who had spent more than 30 years in Canada, a bookseller who looked like an angel, and a film producer – traveling incognito – who asked me the classic question: “Why should I read your novel?”
I thank my publicist Anna van Valkenburg for having organized this book signing event and IndigoSpirit bookstore for having hosted it.
Join me for a chat and book signing!
Address: Indigo Spirit Mount Sinai Hospital Bookstore, 600 University Ave, Toronto, ON M5G 1X5
Date and Time: May 10, 11.00 am-1.00 pm.
And bring the sun if you can!
Cheers, Arianna
Thanks to all those readers who chatted with me and bought “The Afrikaner” today during my book signing at Chapters/Indigo Rideau in Ottawa. It was a pleasure to have a chance to know a little about you, your life, your passions and your dear ones. I hope you will enjoy the reading and will provide some feedback along the way. Connection is the salt of life. Cheers, Arianna https://blogs.ubc.ca/afrikaner/
P.S. Next stop in my across-Canada book tour: Toronto. Join me for book signing at Chapter/Indigo Spirit Mount Sinai, May 10, 11.00 am-1.00 pm.
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arianna.dagnino?ref=br_rs
Please join me for a day of book signing and conversation, on Wed. May 8, at Chapters/Indigo Bookstore in Ottawa: Rideau 47 (t. 613-241-007). I will be there from 11.00 am onwards, with a box of chocolates and personalized bookmarks.
Cheers, Arianna Dagnino, author of “The Afrikaner” (Guernica Editions, Toronto, 2019),
https://blogs.ubc.ca/afrikaner/
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“Some may think that writing a novel about a country [South Africa] not her own and so plagued by identity politics strays into the area of cultural appropriation. I would strongly disagree. Dagnino’s writing demonstrates the value of restoring to the storyteller a fundamental mandate, i.e. to chronicle the Zeitgeist wherever it may be, and especially in a country, whose history has touched all of us. In this, “The Afrikaner” is an exceptional novel by an exceptional writer.” Thanks to writer Ian Thomas Shaw (Con Cú), author of the newly published “The Quill of the Dove”, for his generous and thought-provoking review of “The Afrikaner” in The Ottawa Review of Books. You can read the whole review here.
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I enjoyed sharing the podium with Ian Thomas Shaw and other Guernica writers for the book launch of “The Afrikaner” in Montreal (May 1) at Paragraphe Bookstore, as part of the Blue Met Festival. I am also glad that the festival allowed me to meet again the writer 
Alberto Manguel after I had interviewed him for my previous book. Then it was time to discover Montreal by night and the music played at the “Mariposa Café”, in the NDG (Notre Dame de Grâce) suburb (courtesy, among others, of the duo “Antonio and Luigi,” soloist Jean-Francçois D’Outremont and guitarist-cum chef-cum owner Victor Labelle). Labelle tells musicians, “Beginner or expert, you get the same support from me and the audience. You don’t have to be polished. It’s not about the individual performance; it’s about the collective experience. Leave your ego at the door.” What a wonderful encouragement also for us writers! Check Labelle’s interview here: https://themontrealeronline.com/2012/08/cafe-mariposa-a-sixties-kind-of-place-in-the-21st-century/?fbclid=IwAR0UmXBVtd6b7BfXZDcDIesNDZvfG97O9QFE-ejAZ7YvFtjiXi_OoQjxcXE https://lnkd.in/eHfX5Yx theafrikaner booklaunch montreal authors
Thanks to Dana Gee for the beautiful interview in the “Vancouver Sun” on my novel “The 
Afrikaner” and for getting the gist of it: “Arianna Dagnino hopes to turn novel into a movie”! :-)))
If you are interested in reading the full interview, you can find it at this link: https://lnkd.in/dfjNTuy
Tags: Canadian literature, Canadian writers, novel, novelist, Vancouver, South Africa, fiction writing, film, filmic transposition
#theafrikaner
https://blogs.ubc.ca/afrikaner/follow 
