Butterflies in November
Butterflies in November is the story of a woman at crossroads in her life deciding to take summer holidays in November and travel around her island. She has been dumped twice on the same day, by her husband and her lover, and then wins the lottery twice, gaining a summerhouse and a large sum of money.
Your first book The Greenhouse won two awards, so how did this make you feel as a new writer?
I felt fortunate and blessed. It was also a total surprise that the book became an international best-seller.
The book has many layers, so how did the inspirations for it come about?
I wanted to write a love story that was different from any love story that I had read (one woman and three men!) and I also wanted the female heroine to be different from any female character I had read about in a novel!
What made you want to explore the theme of motherhood in the book?
In The Greenhouse, my former novel I explored fatherhood and male sensitivity by telling a story of a very young gardener who accidentally became a father. In Butterflies in November women become mothers by accident. In my books men are often seen as caring and women seeking liberty.
The film rights have been secured for the book, so what was your reaction when you found out?
For many years I have been reluctant to sell the rights of my books and have said no to many proposals so I guess I wanted to say yes for a change.
When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?
When I was 8 years old I told my teacher that I intended to become a writer. Then I forgot all about it and the urge to write fiction came relatively late when I already had a career as an art historian and a teacher at the University of Iceland
Who are your favourite reads?
Mostly Icelandic poetry but for the moment I am reading plays. The last play I read was a classic one; The house of Bernarda Alba by Lorca.
What is your writing process?
There isn´t any. Since I still work full time as a teacher, I write whenever I have free time. I can write anywhere, anytime except if I haven´t slept at all. All I need is a pen.
How do you write with such effortless expertise?
The act of writing is creative in itself so fortunately there is always something that surprises the author himself.
What is next for you?
I just finished writing my third play called Swans, mate for life, which will be put on stage by the National Theater of Iceland in February 2014. I have already started writing two more plays and a new novel…
Butterflies in November published by Pushkin Press.