Malve von Hassell is a freelance writer, researcher, and translator. She holds a Ph. D. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research. Working as an independent scholar, she published several books and journal articles, in particular, The Struggle for Eden: Community Gardens in New York City (Bergin & Garvey 2002) and Homesteading in New York City 1978-1993: The Divided Heart of Loisaida (Bergin & Garvey 1996). She has also edited her grandfather Ulrich von Hassell's memoirs written in prison in 1944, Der Kreis schließt sich - Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft 1944 (Propylaen Verlag 1994). She has taught at Queens College, Baruch College, Pace University, and Suffolk County Community College, while continuing her work as a translator and writer. She has published a children’s picture book, Letters from the Tooth Fairy (Mill City Press, 2012), and completed a manuscript for a historical fiction book set in the 13th century for young adults, Falconello. She is working on a historical fiction novel set in Jerusalem in the time of the crusades.
Please tell us about your current
release.
The first English edition of Rennefarre
is the culmination of a dream of mine—a perfect storm of things
that I love: a wonderful original text, the challenge of translation,
the thrill of research, and the joy of assembling everything into a
finished product. I am excited that it is now in print and available
to an English reading audience.
Can you tell us about the journey
that led you to write your book?
I have loved Rennefarre since I
was a child. I read it over and over, fascinated and charmed by the
adventures of Dott, the main character—described in such a tangible
and immediate fashion. I loved the voices of the animals that Dott
encounters. The descriptions and scenes are so real that it is easy
to imagine oneself following along in Dott’s footsteps. Dott,
impulsive, stubborn, and passionate, was real and believable to me as
a child. As an adult returning to this book, I decided that it was a
treasure that should be made available to English readers.
Can you tell us about the story
behind your book cover?
The cover depicts a scene in the book
where Dott seeks out a place to sleep for the night. When she stands
in front of this building, she feels very much alone and is grateful
for the company of Ardea, the young heron next to her. She ends up
sleeping in the abbey, sheltered and kept warm by the heron’s wing.
The image conveys many elements of the story, the thrill of
discovery, the charm of nature, a multi-layered and complex history,
the importance of friendship, and the feeling of being alone.
What approaches have you taken to
marketing your book?
This is a new and exciting experience
for me, and the learning curve is sharp. It is my first venture into
making use of Facebook and other social media for marketing. I look
forward to discussing details of the book on blogs. I will attend an
authors and illustrators event at a school in my town in March 2013.
What book on the market does yours
compare to? How is your book different?
This is not an easy question to answer.
Two books, also translated, come to mind. One is Michael Ende’s
Neverending Story. Like Rennefarre, this book involves
the element of a quest and the search for home, but unlike
Rennefarre, it is set entirely within the world of fantasy.
Selma Lagerlöf’s Nils Holgersson and the Wild Geese
involves a similar storyline of a child that travels with animals and
seeks to return home; however, it was written for a much younger
audience. The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne has
some interesting parallels. These books feature children who are
magically transposed into different periods and places in the world
as a result of which they are given brief glimpses into history and
myths. Meanwhile, the books are addressed to a younger audience and
ultimately consist of many disparate fragments or glimpses of the
world of history and legends. Rennefarre, perched on the fluid
fault lines between history and legend and interwoven with elements
of magic and fantasy, meanwhile presents a single story of a child’s
journey with an overarching central theme of human responsibility and
choices.
What would you say is your most
interesting writing quirk?
Regrettably, I would have to admit to
an unfortunate tendency to writing long convoluted sentences. Even
though I have lived in this country since I was thirteen and have
worked as a translator for over two decades, the German language has
a way of creeping up in my writing. There is a lovely word in
German, “Schachtelsatz”, which describes a sentence consisting of
boxes within boxes within boxes of meaning. The polar opposite is
the standard of short succinct sentences favored by many writers,
including those trained in American schools of journalism, among
others. I try to steer somewhere in the middle of these sirens of
style.
Open your book to a random page and
tell us what’s happening.
Page 45: In this scene, Dott tries to
fulfill a quest with which she had been entrusted. She wants to free
an owl that had been captured by humans in order to serve as a decoy.
Dott sits in front of the cage where the owl is being held and waits
for daylight. Two other animals, the owl’s mate and a squirrel, are
watching and waiting to see how Dott will manage to free the owl. The
owl looks sick and apathetic. Dott is appalled by the suffering of
this bird in captivity and feels ashamed as a human being.
Do you plan any subsequent books?
I have completed a manuscript of
historical fiction for young adults entitled Falconello. It is
set in the 13th century and involves the journey of a
young man from the north of Germany to Italy. I am now working on
another historical fiction work set in Jerusalem in the 12th
century.
Tell us what you’re reading at the
moment and what you think of it.
Aside from rereading Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice whenever I am in the need of balance, I
always have a stack of books that I check out of my local library.
The latest gem has been a book by Helen Dunmore, The Siege,
about the siege of the city of Leningrad in World War II. It is a
book hard to forget; the relentless cold and the gnawing hunger seep
into your bones as you read it, and at the same time, Dunmore
captures something exquisite and beautiful about the human spirit.
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ReplyDeleteThe Round House by Louise Erdrich - coming of age story
ReplyDeleteThank you for giving my book this "spot" on your blog. I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteMalve
Freda, thanks for shining the spotlight on Malve's fantasy novel/fairy tale. And good luck to all who enter the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Give Ewok a hug for me :)
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
ReplyDeletegreat expectations
ReplyDelete