Torquay storyteller to launch moving new novel

Critically acclaimed Torquay author Favel Parrett will launch her heartfelt new novel There Was Still Love at the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre next Tuesday.

Narrated through two children – a recurring theme in Parrett’s deeply honest stories – There Was Still Love is set in Melbourne and Prague (Czech Republic) and follows the journey of twin sisters who are separated by wars and distance.

The Miles Franklin shortlisted author described the book as a “love letter” to her late grandparents.

“I realised that I knew my grandparents for the 16 years that I had them, but I knew very little about their past; that not only saddened me, it also interested me,” she said.

“As a child you’re quite self-centred, and that generation didn’t talk about themselves. When did their heart first break? I’ll never know. I’d do anything to see them again.”

Parrett said if she had the opportunity to sit down with her grandparents once more, she would ask them in-depth questions about their lives before the stories vanished with their deaths.

She said her grandparents would likely think of their lives as mundane, but to Parrett, those ordinary moments are often lined with the most compelling lessons.

“Ordinary people do amazing things. There Was Still Love is a real passion novel. I wrote it not thinking it would be published. The writing took about a year, then another year of editing.”

Parrett said the editing process of this particular novel was completed using a notably different approach to her previous two: Past the Shallows (2011) and When the Night Comes (2014).

There Was Still Love was drafted “really heavily”, with the final product being a precise piece of literature.

“I’ve really gotten rid of every excess word – it was hard, and it’s been a strange process. I really became a recluse with this one and I worked really hard,” she said.

“I felt like my grandparents were with me when I was writing the book, trying to piece things together and imagining what they would have been like when they were children.

“I also had this sense that people never really leave home, and even though migrants can leave the globe, part of their soul stays there (their birthplace).”

Favel Parrett will launch There Was Still Love at the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre (51 Little Malop Street, Geelong) on Tuesday, September 24 from 6.30pm. The following day, she will sign copies of the novel at Torquay Books (14B Gilbert Street, Torquay) from 10.30am.