Sara Bower

Prose writer. Sara Bower has received numerous awards for her novels and short stories. In 2007, she won the Susan Hill Prize for her novel The Needle in the Blood. Her second novel, The Book of Love (published in the US as Sins of the House of Borgia), was translated into nine languages and became a Globe and Mail bestseller in 2009. Her fourth novel, Erosion, was published in 2014. Her short stories and essays have been widely published in outlets such as MsLexia, Words Without Borders, and Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and have also been broadcast on BBC Radio.

Excerpt from an Interview

“…I am currently working on a novel titled Love Kills, Doesn’t It? It features three plotlines set across England and Palestine during the period of 1948–2008. The main character is an English woman whose past is shrouded in mystery, which she only begins to discover after unexpectedly inheriting a house on the North Yorkshire coast. The second character is a Palestinian terrorist. Key roles are also played by the woman’s mother and a baker. The novel has a complex chronology, and none of the relationships unfold in the way one might initially expect.

Writing this book feels like walking a tightrope; I am trying to convey the complexity and chaos of real-life relationships and coincidences while simultaneously creating a harmonious, tightly woven narrative. This novel is a challenge for me in many ways. The most enjoyable experience I’ve had while researching it so far was when the owner of the Pump Street Bakery in Oxford allowed me to work a shift alongside the bakers. (Eating a freshly baked pastry for breakfast at 4:00 AM after kneading dough all night is, I think, the closest feeling to heavenly bliss I have ever experienced!). My next such experience awaits me this October, when I travel to Palestine to participate in Project Zatoun, which involves the olive harvest. Palestine’s recent history is so thoroughly documented that I hardly know where to begin studying it.”

Translated from English by Tamar Kotrikadze