I’m leaving Barcelona today after a busy few days of press interviews to discuss THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE. If you speak Spanish or Catalan and want to see what was said you can read some of them online: Publico, ABC Newspaper, El Correo, La Vanguardia, and listen to a radio interview from Catalunya Radio.
Now – on to the airport.
The Spanish language edition of THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE, entitled La Casa del Propostio Especial, and the Catalan edition, (La Casa Del Proposit Especial) are published this week, by Salamandra and Empuries respectively.
To coincide with this, the books programme Pagina 2 broadcast the interview and video piece that we shot in St Petersburg earlier this month. It felt very good to be back in the city where I wrote so much of this novel – which is, I think, my favourite of my own books – and particularly to be allowed access to some parts of the Winter Palace that I had not been in during my writing trip there in 2007. The entire interview, including a reading from the section of the novel that takes place in Tsar Nicholas’ private library which I read in that same library can be viewed on the Pagina 2 website here.
Also, the Spanish newspaper El Pais published a long feature article on the book and interview with me which we also conducted in Russia a few weeks ago.
I’ll be back in Spain next week for publicity duties on the novel. I just got back from Singapore late last night so intend to catch up on as much rest between now and then as possible.
Spain
Catalan
I was a guest on The Afternoon Show on RTE Television yesterday to talk about THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE and the Clifden Arts Festival, which began yesterday and which I’ll be reading at on Sunday night.
You can watch the interview using the RTE Player – my bit kicks in around the 1 hour 18 minute mark.
My 3 weeks in Australia are drawing to a close but there are still a few events to finish. One of the highlights of the trip has been getting to know the wonderful Australian writer Morris Gleitzman, author of ‘Once’ and ‘Then’ (amongst others), two books which, like The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, explore the subject matter of the Holocaust through a child’s eye. Morris and I gave a joint interview yesterday at the festival which was broadcast live on the ABC. I think it was quite an interesting discussion. You can listen to the entire interview as a podcast on the ABC Bookshow website here.
With Morris Gleitzman
If you live anywhere around the Hampshire area, you might like to tune in to a radio interview I’ll be doing on BBC Radio Solent between 2:00 and 2:30 pm to talk about THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PU.RPOSE. The interview takes place on the Charlie Crocker show. Radio Solent can be found on 96.1 FM / 103.8 FM
One of my former university lectures, Senator David Norris, interviewed me on his Sunday morning programme on Newstalk. Back when I was a student in Trinity College in the early ’90s, David taught me ‘The Novel’ on my English Literature course, which is a nice coincidence since I ended up as a novelist. A couple of years ago he also presented me with the prize when I won the Bisto Book of the Year Award for THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS.
You can listen to the podcast of the programme by clicking here.
Attentive readers might wonder how I did this when I was in Aberdeen on Sunday morning. We recorded it a couple of weeks ago.
I was a guest on Saturday morning, alongside fellow novelist Dermot Bolger, on RTE Radio 1’s Marian Finucane Show, where I recommended a few books that I’ve read recently that I think others might enjoy.
Namely: Siobhan Dowd’s BOG CHILD, Yoko Ogawa’s THE HOUSEKEEPER & THE PROFESSOR, Anita Brookner’s STRANGERS and Jed Mercurio’s AMERICAN ADULTERER.
You can listento the full show here. Our chat kicks in around the 1′35″ mark.
I was a guest last night on THE VIEW, RTE’s arts review show, where the subjects up for discussion were three new movies, MILK, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and VALKYRIE, and the debut novel THE OUTLANDER by Canadian writer Gil Adamson.
You can watch the entire show – host John Kelly, guests David Norris, Carrie Crowley and I – online on RTE’s website.
I was a guest this morning on RTE Radio 1’s Marian Finucane show, alongside novelist Dermot Bolger, where we both gave recommendations on recent books that we had enjoyed.
The four I chose were American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, The Wolf by Joseph Smith, The Road Home by Rose Tremain and One Morning Like A Bird by Andrew Miller.
You can listen to Marian, Dermot and I discussing these and other books on the RTE Website’s listen-back facility. Our chat kicks in around the 1 hour 30 mark.
I appeared on RTE Television’s THE VIEW on Tuesday night, a late night arts programme, discussing among other things Neil Gaiman’s new novel, the Fenton Art Gallery book, and the Sony E-Book Reader, as well as naming my two book recommendations for Christmas presents – Philip Hensher’s THE NORTHERN CLEMENCY and Barry McCrea’s THE FIRST VERSE. If you have about 30 minutes to spare you can watch the entire show online here, or watch it in pieces: Neil Gaiman section, Fenton Gallery section, E-Book Reader section, and Books of the Year section.
