Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer's Reviews > Thirsty Sea

This novel was originally published in Italian as "Nel mare c'è la sete" by Erica Mou (the stage name of an Italian singer/songwriter – this her debut novel).

Its English translation is the first publication by the new UK small press - Héloïse Press which “champions world-wide female talent ….. [giving] voice to emerging and well-established female writers from home and abroad. With a focus on intimate, visceral and powerful narratives, Héloïse Press brings together women’s issues and literary sophistication.”
So kudos to the press (whose elegantly presented novels seem to me to nicely match their aim) for not just including the translator (Clarissa Botsford)’s name on the front cover (as all but the most stubborn small presses do that) but for going further and not just including but leading with a detailed translators note.

This one is particularly useful – as Clarissa Botsford explains in detail both the biggest challenges of the translation (in particular the compound/double meaning words which are not just crucial to the narrator’s worldview but to the very structure of the novel) and the collaborative process she and the author went through to deal with this - in many cases changing elements of the novel completely – a process she calls trans-creation.

Every chapter has a postscript: a title word and a short poem. The 'title word' is related to the content, message or significance of the section, while the short poem is related to the meaning of one or both parts of the word. In some instances, we changed the word, in others we changed the poem and rewrote it from scratch to match the word, in others again we were inspired to change both, in Mou's words, 'improving on the original. "This word has been left behind compared to the others we've already worked on,' she would say. And off we would go, brainstorming and throwing things in the air.

The novel itself I found good but perhaps a little more underwhelming – a slightly quirky variation on some familiar literary themes (childhood tragedy and how it reverberates on relationships later in life).

The narrator is the 32 year old Maria who lives in her hometown of Bari, Italy with her partner Nicola (an airline pilot) and an imaginary dog whose existence (or lack thereof) perhaps speaks to the biggest tension between Nicola and Maria – his desire for marriage and increasingly a child, a level of permanency and commitment which Maria struggles with to face and which gives the story its rather inevitable narrative tension over 24 hours as Maria faces a Doctor’s appointment and a decision.

Maria runs a small business – Be Present – which offers boutique present sourcing services for her clients – an idea she took from Ruth an American with whom she briefly lived in England for an intense 12 week period.

The 24 hours are particularly resonant for Maria as it is the 25th anniversary of when her younger sister Summer died in a childhood accident for which Maria has always blamed herself and which drove a seemingly permanent wedge between her and her father.

Over those hours through Maria’s thoughts we learn of the wider emotional gaps between her and her mother/father and her and Nicola, so much of it relating to the different ways each of them has dealt with grief – and we are also introduced to a wider list of well crafted side-characters (particularly some of Maria’s customers)

A strong opening publication by the Press – 3.5 stars.