Postcolonial Writing Revisited

"The Hubris of Public and Personal History in The Afrikaner by Arianna Dagnino" - A Review by Hollay Ghadery
"Zoe’s stagnancy is a fascinating reflection of the seeming impossibility of finding closure amidst the disparate beliefs and attitudes in post-colonial West Africa. It’s hard to forgive. It’s hard to forget. It can feel impossible to move forward," writes Hollay Ghadery in her thoughtful and thought-provoking review of "The Afrikaner", which she finds "as surprising as any contemporary post-colonial novel I could imagine." You can read the whole review here: http://www.riverstreetwriting.com/blog/review-the-afrikaner

The Afrikaner-Audiobook (Chapter 1)

With Los Angeles-based, South African-born actor Dennis Kleinman (www.aworldvoice.com) we have started working on an audiobook version of my novel "The Afrikaner"

You can listen to an excerpt from Chapter 1 read by Dennis here:

https://youtu.be/Rogbi6kmmkw

Obviously, we will need more funds to accomplish our task. I was thus thinking of initiating a crowdfunding campaign with Kickstarter or Go Fund Me.

Any suggestions re the best way to go about it?

The Spirit of the Delta - Anyone inspired out there?

Even the marshes of the Fraser Delta, BC can be mesmerizing if seen from another angle. Drones can provide that extra perspective. Together with music (beautiful soundtrack choice).

There is a story to be told, of a young woman and her connection with the spirit of the delta. Low land, high life. Cult book and cult movie stuff.


#drones #dronagebc #candrones #Mavic2Pro #canadadrones #creativewriting #cultbook #cultmovie #creativeprocess #spiritofthemarsh #lowlands #lowlandhighlife

Book signing of "The Afrikaner" in Van!

Join me for a chat and book signing of my novel “The Afrikaner” (Guernica, Toronto, 2019)

WHERE: Indigo Robson Bookstore (1033 Robson St, Vancouver)

WHEN: Saturday, June 29,  1.30 pm-7.00 pm. 

The Afrikaner: “A tale of hate, love, guilt and redemption under African skies”

The book was inspired by the five years I spent in the southern African region as an international reporter for the Italian press. I now live in Vancouver.

BOOK WEBSITE: https://blogs.ubc.ca/afrikaner/

BOOK TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXmKFWMLgKM

Check it out and share wildly!

Cheers, Arianna

P.S. I am on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arianna.dagnino

Reading Aja Gabel's "The Ensemble" in Van

I read this book watching the ships moored in Vancouver waters.

Apparently simple, apparently written in a very accessible language, Aja Gabel’s "The Ensemble" works like a perfectly orchestrated mechanism. 
Its structure reminds of a Bach’s fugue, with eight voices (those of four talented members of a string quartet and those of their instruments) entering in conversation in a contrapuntal way.
The main theme is aging, meant as the process of acquiring maturity through life experience and the way this process is reflected in the quartet’s music performance across time.
If at a young age players can technically master a music score it is only after having fought the usual life’s battles that they are able to infuse into their playing the sound of their anguished souls. And that’s when the audience truly responds, recognizing the ancient, never-ending call for communion through the artistic medium. But also acknowledging that some of the freshness and candour of the youth can still be preserved in the – more or less creative – transition into adulthood and – alas! – senility.
That’s the book’s lesson in a nutshell. Saying more than this would mean giving out too much of the novel. Long live the music, the child and the artist within us!

The Afrikaner. A Novel by Arianna Dagnino (Guernica, Toronto, April 2019). It will be screened today at IndigoSpirit Mount Sinai Hospital bookstore in Ottawa (600 University Av.) during the book signing (11.00 am-2.00 pm). Interesting and clever idea to open a bookstore in the lobby of a hospital. So much pain can find – at least momentary – relief through a book. Through a good story that has asked to be told. Check it out!

Interview in the “Vancouver Sun”: author “hopes to turn novel into a movie”!

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