Saturday, October 20, 2018

THE RELUCTANT HEALER – PATRICK SAMMUT INTERVIEWS AUTHOR LOU DROFENIK


1.       The Reluctant Healer is your most recent novel. When and from where did it come from?

The novel came from a conversation during one of the interviews I held in 1989 in Malta. A long time ago now. We spoke about domestic violence and the disrespect women face especially if they are uneducated. When I transcribed the interview a sentence struck me and stayed with me. ‘My dear over there they have an uspeakable wound.’ It took many years and a few novels later that this sentence crystallised and became a novel.

2.       Mention two or three favourite themes in your narrative.

I did not write this novel with a particular theme in mind. I want to leave it to the reader to work out the themes. Once I heard Laura’s voice, I knew what her character was like. I enjoyed writing about her, about her search for her origins, discovering she had the same gift her grandmother Mariannina had. As I was writing I travelled with her to Gozo and watched her falling in love not only with the island of her birth but also with the young man she had known in her childhood.

3.       Who are the readers of your novels? What type of feedback do you have?

I actually had very good feedback so far. Readers have told me they became very emotionally involved in the narrative and couldn’t put it down.

4.       How is The Reluctant Healer different from your previous novels? Are there any common elements?

This is very different to the other novels as it doesn’t have any historical facts in it. It is purely a narrative dealing with a young woman’s search to find who her parents were. Unknowingly she had been living within a web of lies, and had she not gone to Gozo she would never have discovered her true identity.

5.       A short message the younger generations regarding books, reading and literature?

Reading opens the world for us. A good book takes us on a journey where no plane or train or bus can go, it makes our hearts soar to unimaginable heights. I love reading.


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