“In the desert, in prison or out at sea, Conrad can be a good companion. I found in his pages a way to exorcise, at least in part, the darkest moments of my life” (The Afrikaner”). “There are several subplots that unfold over the 240 pages of Arianna Dagnino’s “The Afrikaner,” not the least of which is racism, and the scar it has left on white/black relationships after apartheid was abolished. Ms. Dagnino’s writing is authoritative and a pleasure to read. The pacing of the novel may be considered “slow” by some, but for me, this is modern literature at its best. As an aside, at one point in the story, Zoe [the main character, a female paleontologist] is gifted by Kurt [the troubled writer] a book to read in the desert: Conrad’s ‘The Secret Sharer,’ which blew me away because I was thinking at the time what a Conradian story ‘The Afrikaner’ is.” Read the whole interview of “The Afrikaner” by author James Fisher here: https://lnkd.in/e3NDpKd

“I have never understood the lure of Africa; at the end of this novel, I did. […] landscape descriptions are exquisite and closely observed. At the end, I felt I had been there, in these intense, parched African places, tasted the food, smelled the wind and the sea.”

See the whole review of Arianna Dagnino’s “The Afrikaner” by Monika Ullmann here.

“The Afrikaner (Guernica Editions, 2019) is a powerful novel set in extraordinary locations in Africa, where we encounter some mysterious people […]”

Arianna Dagnino was born in Genova, Italy. After Moscow, London, and Boston, she worked in South Africa as a foreign correspondent. In Australia, she earned a PhD in sociology and comparative literature. She currently teaches at the University of British Columbia. Like many of her characters, she shares the nomadic experience.

You can read the rest of Joseph Pivato’s review of “The Afrikaner” in Accenti Magazine here: https://lnkd.in/eFHn-Wi

hashtag#theafrikanerbook hashtag#theafrikanernovel hashtag#booktoscreen

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://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/vancouver-writer-heads-to-south-africa-for-new-novel

Tags: Canadian literature, Canadian writers, novel, novelist, Vancouver, South Africa, fiction writing, film, filmic transposition

#theafrikaner

Flash Fiction – ‘Brief, condensed stories written in under 1000 words, and read in a ‘flash’!

Join me and my fellow writers in our across-Canada group book launches!

The Afrikaner will be in Montreal on May 2 at Paragraphe bookstore as part of the Blue Metropolis Festival, then in Ottawa on May 5 at the new event space of the Vimy Brewing Company, and finally in Toronto on May 16 at the Columbus Event Centre. See posters here and also the Events page: https://blogs.ubc.ca/afrikaner/events/events/

Share wildly and let’s meet on the road!

Past or present, literature helps forge our future paths. “Cosmic Connections” – Asymptote’s Spring 2019 edition – traces the work of writers and translators from 27 countries and in 17 languages. This quarter’s special feature spotlights the art of translation. From interviews with Viet Thanh Nguyen and Dubravka Ugrešić to poetry by Gertrud Kolmar and Raymond Queneau. Cooler than black holes. Check this whole galaxy of creative reflections here: https://www.asymptotejournal.com/

Thank you all for attending our group book launch at Massy Books in Vancouver.
It was a delightful evening, the bookstore was packed, as this kind of places should be all the time.
I am glad that this was also the occasion for many of us to discover “Massy Books,” a book-lover secret corner (100% First-Nation owned) and a refuge for the soul in the East End. Thanks to Patricia Massy for hosting us!

I attach some pics, including the one of Dr Cecil Hershler reading from my bok “The Afrikaner” with his beautiful South African accented voice, and of me with authors Michael Springate and Ian Thomas Shaw.

I wish you all a pleasant reading time!

“Art must be cathartic, original and memorable,” writer-cum-critic Alan Twigg writes in his engaging review of The Afrikaner. I heartily thank Alan for his words of appreciation and the thought-provoking reflections on the writer’s freedom to cross cultural, ethnic and racial boundaries. I hope his concluding remarks will bring good luck to the book now that it is out there, in the big world of letters and readers: “North Americans have gleaned a deeper awareness of South Africa through Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country, Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee. We’ve also seen Invictus or A Dry White Season or Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom about Stephen Biko, the man that Nelson Mandela described as “the spark that lit a veld fire across South Africa. The Afrikaner deserves its place in that pantheon.”

Read the whole review here: https://bcbooklook.com/2019/03/31/somewhere-inside-the-rainbow/#more-38597

Join Guernica for their first launch of the spring season! Meet with the authors and hear them read from their books of literary fiction, drama, and non-fiction: “The Afrikaner” by Arianna Dagnino, “Quill of the Dove” by Ian Shaw, “Trapped: A Mother’s Quest to Reclaim Her Daughters” by Alexandra Karb, and Revolt/ Compassion by Michael Springate.