Cambridge Edition February 2019

BOOK CLUB

CAMBRIDGE EDI T ION Boo k Clu b BRINGING YOU TOP NEW FICTION PICKS, AUTHOR INTERVIEWS, DISCOUNTS AND LOTS MORE BOOK CHAT, THE EDITION BOOK CLUB IS A PARTNERSHIP WITH CAMBRIDGE LITERARY FESTIVAL AND HEFFERS

A PERFECT MOTHER BY KATRI SKALA INTERVIEW BY CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS THIS MONTH’S BOOK CHOICE EXPLORES RELATIONSHIPS, LOVE, PARENTING, VIOLENCE AND LEGACY, ALL SET AGAINST THE UNCERTAINTY OF WHETHER A CRIME HAS BEEN COMMITTED

F irst published in September 2018, A Perfect Mother by Katri Skala is a gripping, complex and rewarding existential novel. It explores the universal themes of ageing, people’s relationships with their parents and the stories we choose to tell about our lives – all set against the stunning and richly textured historical backdrop of Trieste. Oh – and there’s even a book club. The storytelling in A Perfect Mother is so accomplished, the plotting so deft,

that it comes as quite a surprise to discover this is Katri’s first novel – but the author has had some time to work on this particular story. “I started way back in 2010, then had a critical mass of the book by 2013,” she says. “I revised a lot over the following years, helped by a few readers and my editor at Hikari, and by an MA in 20th-century literature at UEA. It really honed my skills as a close reader and helped me formulate what it is about good writing that I value.”

Katri finds routine essential when working on a book, with as few interruptions as possible. “I work best in sprints of several days when I do nothing but immerse myself in the writing,” she says. “That’s not to say I’m scribbling away every minute, accumulating word count – on the contrary, often I might be doing household chores, or walking or doodling in a notebook – just that I write best when no other major demand is made of my brain. When I’ve got u

23

C A M B S E D I T I O N . C O . U K

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9

Powered by