The Minerva Reader

My friend Lisa de Nikolits has recently started The Minerva Reader, “a site showcasing unsung literary heroes,” and she featured my debut novel Belief on the site earlier this week.

Lisa is a Toronto-based novelist.  When I first saw the site recently, I was intrigued by its name – the Minerva Reader. Lisa explains why she choose that name:

“But why call it Minerva? Because back in 1995, in Johannesburg, South Africa, I saw an advert for a publishing house in London, UK. They called themselves Minerva and were incredibly good at passing themselves off as the traditional publisher which was also called Minerva, only the latter was legit and they published beautiful, unusual literary works.

"The shysters I contacted operated a smooth scam and I was taken for a ride. Later reports say “They went bust (in 2002) because they were a scam. They were sued by more than 40 of their authors, and were the subject of two exposés on the BBC.” And that’s good to know!

"Now, many years later, I am about to publish my seventh book with my dearly beloved publisher, Inanna Publications – so yes, after a wobbly start, the goddesses have indeed been kind to me!”

I’m reproducing the content below. The link to the site is: www.theminervareader.com

Mayank Bhatt immigrated to Toronto in 2008 from Mumbai (Bombay), where he worked as a journalist. His short stories have been published in TOK 5: Writing the New Toronto and Canadian Voices II. In Canada he has worked as a security guard, an administrator, and an arts festival organizer. He lives in Toronto with his family. He is the author of Belief (Mawenzi House).

I thought this novel was a timely, touching, well-written book and while Mayank was featured in the Toronto Star and the Quill & Quire and was not therefore entirely unsung, I wanted to give the book another shoutout.

My review of Belief on Goodreads:

A sensitive, eloquent and timely novel. Beautifully written, Belief brings moving insights not only into the lonely immigrant experience, but, in particular, examines in detail the religious and racial tensions that Muslims suffer today The book also explores familial relationships that carry the unwieldy weight of traditions and legacies from former homelands, as well as the scars from battles fought there. Marriage, aging, love, complicated sibling tangles – all these are magnified and brought into focus under the microscope of Mayank Bhatt's thoughtful observations.

The Quill & Quire Review of Belief

Novelist Mayank Bhatt, who immigrated to Canada from Mumbai in 2008, delivers a taut, timely debut focused on one immigrant family and the devastating experience that threatens to destroy the life they have struggled to build in their new country.

Having left their home in the 1990s to escape recurrent violence between Hindus and Muslims, Abdul and Ruksana Latif and their two adult children, Ziram and Rafiq, find themselves “misfits in Canada as much as they had been, as Muslims, in India.”

Nevertheless, by the fall of 2008, the Latifs are relatively settled, with a home they own and jobs that promise more than mere survival. The family’s comfortable existence is thrown into turmoil when it is revealed that Rafiq may be involved in a terrorist plot to blow up a number of locations in and around Toronto. Rafiq’s questionable treatment at the hands of the justice system, and the family’s fear regarding the potential repercussions from his alleged crime, illustrate their terribly vulnerable position in Canadian society.

In part, Belief may be read as a cautionary tale urging those with extremist leanings to “steer a calmer, more sober path.” But even more importantly, it reads as a message to mainstream Canada that the isolation and marginalization of the immigrant experience have the potential to result in unintended consequences when faced with individuals who “[don’t] know what one could do about an unjust system except fight it.”

At the novel’s end, the future for the Latifs is undetermined. It is clear that their lives have been irrevocably altered, though not entirely for the worse. Through the experience of arrest and interrogation, Rafiq is forced to re-evaluate his religious faith, as well as his understanding of his parents; in so doing, he gains a clearer perspective on the older generation’s struggles.

Bhatt’s illuminating, plain-spoken novel could be instrumental in generating substantive discussion about the immigrant experience in a country that is still a long way from understanding what that really entails.

Quill & Quire, reviewer Dana Hansen. Publisher, Mawenzi House.

The Witchdoctor's Bones - I

Guest Post by Lisa de Nikolits

This, The Witchdoctor’s Bones, is my fourth novel, and, without doubt, it is my most ambitious book to date – and by that I mean that I wanted to do so much with it, and achieve so much.

A recipe for disaster you might think and for the longest time, you’d be absolutely right. Let me backtrack a little.

That I am, and always will be an African, is an indisputable fact. How deeply do I love the country of my birth, how I revere her forthright bold colours, her vibrant, charismatic people and the power and force of her warrior spirit.

Lisa de Nikolits

But while it was the land of my birth, it was never my land and I knew it instinctively, long before I needed anyone to tell me. I grew up in White apartheid South Africa and even as a very young child, I knew that our beloved country was borrowed, stolen, from those who should have had rightful dominion over it, and I knew that one day, they would own it again.

But knowing that a terrible injustice had a hold on our land was not enough, and I always felt, as a teenager and young adult, that I should do so much more to help the cause – but, do what? March more? Protest more? I know I did what I could but I always wanted to do more.

And that is what this book is, for me. It is my voice in helping spotlight the injustice that White rule brought to Africa, primarily with regard to the Bushmen.

It was while walking through the veld grass in the valley of the Underberg mountains, with the steep Sani Pass behind me, and Lesotho to the north east, that it came to me that I needed to write about the people who had walked this land before me.

No, not the Zulus, or the Xhosas but a quieter hero – the Bushman.

I had just returned from a trip to Namibia and I had learned much about the Bushmen there, but I had no idea that the San had in fact also lived in the very place that my father had a forty-hectare farm; in the wild foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains, and you can imagine my astonishment when research revealed this to me. It was one of those gifts from the writing gods and I knew that I simply had to write this book, and that it would be my tribute to the Bushmen, my homage to them.

Now, one cannot say that modern-day Africa is perfect – it is flawed for a whole bunch of reasons and I also wanted to bring those atrocities to the readers’ attention; the horrors of child abduction, the unspeakable crime of muti murders and the barbaric practices of modern day witchcraft that are still very much in evidence today.

To say that I wanted to ‘document’ all this would be erroneous because this is not a history book; it is a psychological thriller and it is also a story of bold adventure, camaraderie, friendship, romance and travel.

I also wanted this book to be a gripping read in the tradition of an Agatha Christie, with murder and suspense and characters vile and headstrong, coming head to head with ones that were heroic and brave.

So you understand what I mean when I say that I wanted to achieve a great deal with this book and you can also understand why it took six years of rewrites and edits for it to finally see the light of day in print!

I admit, yes, I put too much into it; I put my heart and soul and too many characters and endless descriptions and then I took out the wrong things and had to put them back in again. I had to walk away for a bit, and I admit I even nearly gave up; such was the immensity of getting this book right. What started out at 220 000 words had to be halved and I thought, more than once that it might be impossible to achieve my dream.

But in the end, I simply couldn’t give up. I had too much faith in it, and too much hope for it, and with the excellent and patient guidance of my publisher, the book has now been published.

On a final note, I have often wondered what the common denominator is, if indeed there is one, in my writing and I have realized that for the most part I have a fascination with morality. I am fascinated by the question of our innate versus our learned or controlled, if you will, morality, do we have an innate morality at all?

And what happens to our morals when they are challenged? And for me, this is largely what this book is about, morality. In this book, a holiday becomes a true test of moral fortitude but equally, the book is a psychological thriller and I very much hope that readers will enjoy taking this journey alongside some of my most unusual characters to date.

I’d like to conclude this rather long blog post (and I thank you for your patience!) with a piece that wasn’t included in the final edits but which I found fascinating, and I hope you will too.

Thank you!

Continued in the post below

The Witchdoctor's Bones - II

Continued from the post above

Marika sat with her hands tucked under her legs. “I read that the Bushmen’s tracking skills were so great that they were recruited by the army and also, that they have now been asked to go back to the Drakensberg to help track down poachers,” she said. “This, after they were systematically and officially killed, by both blacks and whites alike. If I am correct, the last official Bushmen hunt was organized by the Natal authorities as recently at 1863 and then in 1881, a tribe of Batloakoa people were allowed to settle in the Kubelu valley by Chief Letsie on the condition that they killed the remaining Bushmen, and from what I read, this was carried out with a lot of enthusiasm and great cruelty. And now, that very area is trying to get them back. And good luck with that, since there are so few still around.”

“You know a lot,” Jono commented. He had been eager to bring the evening to a close but when Marika spoke up, he changed his mind and happily seized upon the commonality of their knowledge to engage with her. “And you were right about the army, it played a big role in the lives of the Bushmen. In 1974 the South African Defence Force decided to incorporate two Bushmen tribes into the army; the Barakwena and the Vasekele.”

He laughed, a bitter sound. “This Africanization was good marketing material for the army because it could conveniently claim that race discrimination no longer existed and that blacks were now legally allowed to bear arms. Oh yes, the SADF was very proud of itself, and it announced that it had abolished race discrimination, that both white and non-white soldiers received the same wages and the same opportunities for promotion but this was clearly not true since the highest rank a Bushman could achieve was staff sergeant; so much for equality.

“And yes, their tracking powers were very good but a lot of the stories were urban legends, with some white soldiers claiming that a Bushman could ‘follow a faint spoor at a run for 30km or more, he can predict his prey’s behaviour as if he is clairvoyant—but he can also read and write.’

“Another story said that if a patrol has a Bushman in it, then it is unnecessary to post guards at night because even if the Bushman goes to sleep, he will wake even if the enemy is still far away and will raise the alarm. The SADF hoped that stories like this would create a psychological advantage for them, to their enemies who feared the Bushman powers.

“Now Marika,” Jono continued, “some of your love for the Bushmen probably came from what you may have read in the newspapers or maybe what your parents read and told you. Because, during this time, the white Afrikaner press was in love with ‘these beautiful people’ and the problems they had in adapting to white society were misrepresented in many newspapers. All the things that were in reality very shocking and terrible were recounted as if they were quaint and charming. The Bushman’s aptitude for mathematics, their athletic skills, their love of singing; all of that was presented as fairy-stories. It was considered charming how many of the students in primary school were married with babies of their own by the time they were fourteen. Yes, very charming.” Jono was sarcastic.

“So,” he continued, “the army claimed they were doing a good thing and the press supported them and it looked good but in reality, the Bushman was moved ever further away from his natural life. He drank more, alcoholism increased and soon the whites learned to track as well as they did, so their unique skills were not unique anymore. Also, they weren’t in their natural environment enough to keep their skills fresh. Their children were sent into the bush for few weeks every year, to help them train in their natural ways, as if it could be learnt like that, so quickly.”

Links:

Website: lisadenikolitswriter.com

Readings on YouTube:

• Helen’s Revenge: http://bit.ly/1phxCsg
• Dumi, An Exerpt from The Witchdoctor’s Bones: http://bit.ly/1lirtpA

Pinterest Moodboard: http://bit.ly/1f56CCG

Twitter: @lisadenikolits

Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1gNPYeB

* books can be ordered (or pre-ordered) at Amazon.ca or from inanna.ca and can also be found in select bookstores. If you have any trouble ordering a book, please contact the author, Lisa de Nikolits, at lisa@lisadenikolits.com

Interview with Lisa de Nikolits, author of A Glittering Chaos

Author at the book launch

What is A Glittering Chaos about? Tell us about the theme, the characters and the place.

The novel explores the unexpected twists and turns that life can take at any stage of our lives. When we’re young, we tend to think that all adventure ceases as the years advance but I rail against that notion and I wanted to show that adventure, passion and new beginnings are possible (and sometime inevitable) at any stage of life.

In the novel, a German couple’s trip to Las Vegas is the catalyst for the chaos and change that follows. The seeds for disaster, sown many years previously, lay dormant but Las Vegas, with its glittery amorality sparks off a chain of events that, once started, cannot be stopped until every aspect has been resolved.

Melusine (protagonist) is unaware of the depths of her husband’s torments and she has believed their marriage to be a satisfactory and generally fulfilling one. Her beliefs are challenged when she falls in love with a stranger and she embarks on a passionate affair. Her husband, Hans, is increasingly obsessed with his sister who vanished when she was fourteen; he is convinced that a psychic will be able to help him contact her and help him resolve his incestuous desires.

Things don’t work out in the way that Melusine or Hans expect them to and the story evolves in a way that even surprised me, the author!

This book is based in Vegas; the title of your previous novel was West of Wawa. Are geography, space, and location important for your work?

My initial answer was no but the truth is yes! Yes, geography, space and location are important to my work and I realize the extent to which this is true when thinking about your question.

West of Wawa was a cross-Canada road-trip; A Glittering Chaos would not have happened but for the Vegas context; The Witchdoctor’s Bones (due in 2014, Inanna) is about a group of tourists who travel from Cape Town to Windhoek through Namibia, with murderous consequences. Even The Hungry Mirror dealt with matters of space and landscape – the protagonist’s body was her uncomfortable prison of residence and she examined this intimate country as closely as any cartographer doing daily checks of the valleys and hills.

With three published novels, you’re a prolific writer. What motivates you to write, and what compels you to be so prolific?

I never stop thinking about stories. And I truly do mean do mean never!

There was a period for about four years (1998 to 2002) in which I didn’t write; I was initially trying to forge a life in Sydney, Australia and then, when that didn’t work out, I came here in 2000 and was preoccupied by building a new life to write. However, I’ve used all those experiences in my writing, so that time of adventure did serve a writing purpose in the end!

I’ve churned out novels since my early twenties but the difference now is that I am working hard at improving. It’s as if I spent years in my living room doing pirouettes and pliés while my family applauded – but doing a thousand or a hundred thousand movements means nothing if you keep making the same mistakes.

I decided, when I put my mind to writing here in Canada, that I was going to do things differently, that I’d make an effort to really learn. I got some real feedback (not just my Mom telling me how great I am!) and started studying the craft in earnest.

I’ve never thought that ‘prolific’ was a particularly complimentary term on its own – I mean it’s no good if you produce truckloads of rubbish! There are writers out there who have published one tiny gem and never written again and I think that has a greater worth of the two scenarios.

I don’t mind being prolific but it’s more important to be me that I improve.

I haven’t read the book, but one of the online reviews compares it to Madam Bovary. Flaubert’s novel was criticized for obscenity. Is your novel obscene? Also, we’re in the 21st century, is anything obscene anymore?

I never censure what I write. A lot of readers found The Hungry Mirror to be extremely disturbing and triggering and dark. Some reviews of West of Wawa slammed it for its depiction of the delights of opiates and self-medication but (thankfully) a lot of readers out there ‘get’ my voice; the voice that explores life’s oddities and does so without restraint but with humour and compassion and there’s always an element of triumph in my work. There’s always adventure, there’s always the chance for personal growth and the potential for happy endings.

One of my favourite writers is Harry Crews; he’s funny and dark and unexpected and sensual and unafraid and that, yes, along with Gustave Flaubert’s classic work, is writing I aspire to. The comparison of these two authors may leave some speechless but that would sum up my goals.

Let’s look at a definition of ‘obscene’:

Pronunciation: /əbˈsiːn/

Definition of obscene

adjective

•     (of the portrayal or description of sexual matters) offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency: obscene jokes



offending against moral principles; repugnant: using animals' skins for fur coats is obscene – source: oxford.dictionaries.com

By that definition, I think a lot of things are still considered to be obscene today and A Glittering Chaos has already been judged to be that by some reviewers.

For example, I had a 25-stop blog tour planned in the U.S.A in May and June but this has been reduced to a 12-stop tour because some of the bloggers baulked at the mention of incest in the book’s online trailer.

And a few advance reviewers of the book declined to endorse it due to the sexual content and this did surprise me given Maidenhead’s success (I love Maidenhead by Tamara Faith Berger) and of course there’s Fifty Shades of Dreadful Writing (which I could not read despite trying). Fifty Shades is openly read on subways while my book is being turned down by bloggers in the Midwest… interesting…

In any event, I am delighted and honoured that the book is likened to Madame Bovary (with thanks to Richard Rosenbaum/Broken Pencil) and I’ll take the comparison with gratitude.  

I’d like to mention my publisher here, Luciana Ricciutelli. She’s always believed in my voice and she’s always believed in my writing, regardless of the story’s specific context. Make no mistake, she’s sent me back to the drawing board more than a few times (for which I am incredibly grateful) and she’s always been a stalwart believer in my message and I thank her, along with the board of directors at Inanna. My Inanna family take my words and help me sculpt them, and make them live in this world and no writer could possibly ask for more.

Why do you write? And please don’t say you enjoy writing because nobody in their right mind can say they do. It’s a painful, miserable experience most of the time.

I write because I am more miserable when I am not writing. I am happier with the sometimes-rewarding misery of writing than in the bleak misery of not writing. And I write because I cannot stop myself from doing so. 

And, since we’ve mentioned Madame Bovary, I’d like to end with a quote by Gustave Flaubert that seems rather fitting: “Writing is a dog’s life, but the only one worth living.”

Images: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200434669221292.1073741826.1593233926&type=1