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.<\/p>\n
Narrated through two children \u2013 a recurring theme in Parrett\u2019s deeply honest stories \u2013 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. <\/p>\n
The Miles Franklin shortlisted author described the book as a \u201clove letter\u201d to her late grandparents. <\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a child you\u2019re quite self-centred, and that generation didn\u2019t talk about themselves. When did their heart first break? I\u2019ll never know. I\u2019d do anything to see them again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cOrdinary 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
There Was Still Love was drafted \u201creally heavily\u201d, with the final product being a precise piece of literature. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve really gotten rid of every excess word \u2013 it was hard, and it\u2019s been a strange process. I really became a recluse with this one and I worked really hard,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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).\u201d <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 \u2013 a recurring theme in Parrett\u2019s deeply honest stories \u2013 There Was Still Love is set in Melbourne and Prague (Czech Republic) and follows the journey […]<\/p>\n