The Woman Behind the Waterfall was reviewed in Volume LXXXIV of the prestigious US review journal Kirkus Reviews. The reviewer called the debut novel “a classic tale of love and loss”. Read the full text here.
Author: Leonora Meriel
Dreamy Book-Lovers in Covent Garden
On Friday, 4th November 2016, I took part in my first public reading. The event was organised by Novel London, a brilliant idea set up by Safeena Chaudhry, where writers read aloud the first chapter of their novels, and book lovers sit back with a glass of wine and soak them up. The events are held all over London, in various picturesque bookshops, and the latest one – the 13th Novel London evening – was held in the Waterstones Covent Garden, a lovely and warm bookshop hidden in Garrick Street, just a minute away from Leicester Square.
The theme of our evening was debut writers with international backgrounds. The Woman Behind the Waterfall is set in Ukraine, where I lived for many years. The writer Amy Kitcher was reading from Blood Will Tell, in her lovely Welsh accent. Mari Reiza, originally from Madrid, was reading from her novel Marmotte’s Journey.
The readings were introduced by another writer, Stephen Marriott, author of Candyfloss Guitar. And even the organiser, Safeena Chaudhry, is a writer – her novel, Companions of Clay, was published in 2015.
Another great element of Novel London is that the readings are filmed and available for anyone to watch after the event.
Reading to a full house
Behind the camera (photo and camera work by Lee Cooper)
With wonderful writers Amy Kitcher and Mari Reiza
A Waterstones dream come true!
Video recordings from this event will be available soon from the Novel London website. In the meantime, go and watch some of the writers from past events reading their work. It’s a wonderful thing!
The Launch Party
October 13 was the Official Launch Party for The Woman Behind the Waterfall – hosted by Waterstones bookshop and attended by a big crowd of friends, family, fans, press, Teddington locals, Ukrainians and the lovely Waterstones team.
It was an amazing night, with signings from the moment it started until when the bookshop doors were locked. I managed to do a short reading and say some thank yous, but the rest was a blur of books, pens, signatures, compliments and introductions.
It was an event I had waited for ever since my dream began, and it was everything that I had imagined it would be.
Here are some photos to give an impression of the night.
Photo credits to Anna Lukanina of Ukrainian Events in London and Mike Coles.
Signing the first copies
New friends and book lovers
So many thank yous! Writing a book is a long journey.
A thoughtful reader
Reading the first page of the novel
The last signings
Friends and organising team (thank you!)
Introduction to Ukraine
I lived for several years in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and one of the goals of my writing is to showcase some of the loveliest aspects of the country. There are so many great things about it, from the incredible, lush countryside, to the warm, entrepreneurial people, to the cultural traditions.
So here are a few facts about Ukraine to start off with, which people might not know.
I hope you enjoy them!
Leonora
1. It’s huge! It has a landmass of 603,550 km2, and is the largest country with all its territory in Europe, closely followed by France with 551,500 km2.
2. It has incredible, fertile agricultural lands. In the eighteenth century it was widely referred to as the breadbasket of Europe.
3. It is famous for its wonderful, rich, fertile, black soil.
4. The flag is half blue and half yellow, which represents the blue sky over fields of ripe wheat.
5. The traditional Ukrainian welcome is to present guests with a loaf of black bread and salt. This symbolizes the hospitality of the Ukrainian people. It’s a tradition that you find in many of the surrounding countries and is used for important guests, for new visitors and for brides and grooms at weddings.
6. The word kraina means border and Ukraine borders seven countries: Poland, Moldova, Romania, Belarus, Slovakia, Hungary and Russia.
7. Ukrainian language is close to Polish. It is a lyrical, musical language with soft vowels. There is no “g” in the pronunciation, so words with “g” are pronounced with an “h”.
