Malve von Hassell - Rennefarre - Author Interview and Giveaway

Congratulations to our winner!
bn100candg [at] hotmail [dot] com

About the Book

Imagine riding on the back of a blue heron across time and space. Imagine befriending crows, being kidnapped by magpies, and being given a lift on the back of a kindly stag. Imagine experiencing life as an outcast from human society, encountering spirits and mythical creatures from the world of legends, experiencing the plague in Dresden, and being chased through Berlin by Frederick the Great.

Dott is a twelve-year old girl. She lives in the countryside east of Berlin in an unspecified time between the two world wars. When Dott sneaks out to see the bonfire at the edge of her village on the evening of the midsummer night festival, she has no idea what will happen next. In the dark of night, the magical Rennefarre flower falls into her shoe. It not only makes her invisible, but also allows her to see things no one else could see. No longer able to stay with her parents and her young brother and sister, she begins her search to find a way out of her predicament.

Her quest to return home to her family winds its way through the cities and countryside of 20th century Germany—and beyond. As she befriends the local animals, they help her on her way with gifts of food, shelter, and—through the help of a kind spirit—a magical cup which allows her to become small and ride on the backs of the birds.

Flying across the country on the backs of crows and herons, Dott finds herself seeing the country not only as it is, but also as it used to be. She lives through moments in history others can only read about—meeting historical kings and fanciful spirits along the way. But, even with all of the excitement of her travels, she always has one goal in mind: returning home to her family.

Part coming-of-age story, part fantasy, and part social-cultural portrait of Eastern Germany in the early part of the 20th century, the book covers real ground. That is, one could follow Dott's travels on a map of the area. Seamlessly blending elements of fantasy and history, the book contains a fascinating array of details of day-to-day life in rural and urban areas in eastern Germany. Dott’s adventures are interwoven with folklore and myths as well as vivid accounts of different eras and the diverse cultural and ethnic strains that have formed the basis for a rich and complex history of Germany and Eastern Europe. Written on the eve of World War II, the book offers a sobering perspective on the human potential for causing devastation. At the same time it is filled with hope. In one scene, Dott gets a glimpse of the future — an utterly destroyed cityscape; it inspires her to look to her own responsibilities and actions in life.

Author Interview

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

***

Rennefarre can be purchased at:
MyBookOrders.com


Price: $13.99 paperback
ISBN: 9781938690389
Pages: 297
Publisher: Two Harbors Press
Release: December 11, 2012


About the Author

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.

Links to connect with Malve:
Web Site
Facebook
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site

About the Giveaway

Leave a comment with your email address to enter to win a PDF ebook of Rennefarre. Ends January 31, 2013.