Autrice
Presentazione | Biografia
T
elling a story means not taking anything for granted. With every new novel you start over again, you once again test both inventing and narrative ability. A writer cannot be arrogant, because he must conquer the reader anew each time. It is definitely not guaranteed that those who have appreciated you once will do so again, it depends on what you offer them, and on how much you respect them. To respect one’s readers means not tricking them, not offering them warmed up leftovers pretending they are something new: they’ll realize it immediately, as it only should be, because the writer’s task is to involve the reader in stimulating situations that are capable of evoking common sensations. “I’ve been through this, too, how strange it is to find it written down…” This is the thread that should tie the writer to the reader, whether it’s a memoir or a thriller or a historical novel. In other words, if the reader recognizes himself in your characters and in their stories, it means that somehow you have managed to turn fantasy into reality.
I
am often asked why I chose to have my novels take place in medieval times. I always answer that I don’t know, that it was the medieval times that chose me, and partly that’s true. What is sure, though, is that studying the history of that period immediately intrigued me. I tried to understand, and I discovered that, besides the obvious differences in culture and civilization, some similarities between past and present still exist. The arrogance of power, for example, the greed for money, the lobbies, the turncoats, the sexual impulses…Of course times have changed, but how much? Nowadays we don’t live with the fear of going to hell, as our medieval ancestors did, but the fear of our transience pushes us to consult horoscopes, to hide behind the fleeting certainties generously put out by mass communications, to trust whoever holds power at the moment. Our minds are foggy and if every now and then some objection is raised to criticize a presumed truth, everyone will rise up against it, as if it were the thesis of a medieval heretic. Since my first novel, I tried to put myself in my characters’ shoes, in their way of relating with a material world so different from ours, but curiously similar in the way they express passions and desires. Up till now I think I managed to do so, even though I know I can’t slacken my attention: the risk of being banal is always there, lurking.
