First of all, thank you for
having me I’m delighted to be here!
I’d love to tell you more about one of the characters from my
novel, The Dying Game.
Nour is the mother of our heroine, Anna. No
longer a dedicated member of the Party, she now spends her days in
her father’s old apartment as a dissident and outcast, trying
to make a living on the outskirts of the totalitarian world where you cannot
think or speak freely without paying a price.
Nour is the kind of person that behaves as she wants
to, thinks or feels for the moment, but is ever-changeable in her beliefs.
When she believes in the system, that is the right thing to do, but once she
stops, then THAT is the right thing to do. She always thinks she’s right, which
of course can be a very frustrating trait for a child (or an adult, as Anna is
now) to deal with. Anna describes Nour as ‘never been much of a mother hen.
More like a mother dinosaur, the type who laid her egg and then walked
away.’ Since childhood Anna has been vying for her
mother’s attention, and now as an adult, she has distanced herself from her.
When Anna becomes a mother herself, her own
upbringing impacts how she faces motherhood, and is incapable to
care solely for her daughter and to love her unconditionally. Instead, it is
Nour who cares for Anna’s daughter, which makes Anna rely on her
mother in a way she hadn’t before, but also raises conflict between them. But
Nour isn’t entirely unlikeable, she does have some redeeming
qualities. For example, she’s incredibly loyal when she needs to be
and she’s able to suss out the truth and nonsense when she sees it,
regardless it it’s the right time or place .
I like to think of Nour, Anna and Siri (Anna’s
daughter), as the alternative Gilmore
So, if you’re up for a novel that isn’t all about
the feel- good factor , and explores what it is to be a mother, the
sacrifices we make for love in all forms, as well as a study of human nature
and how we react under extreme pressure, The Dying Game might
just be the book for you. Enjoy!
The Dying Game by Åsa Avdic is published by Windmill in
paperback and eBook, £7.99
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1114362/the-dying-game/
The
Dying Game by Asa Avdic
Do you live to play? Or play to live? The year is 2037. The Soviet Union never fell, and much of Europe has been consolidated under the totalitarian Union of Friendship. On the tiny island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a forty-eight-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic bureaucrat with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment: to stage her own death and then to observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the six other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure? But then a storm rolls in, the power goes out, and the real game begins. . . .
Do you live to play? Or play to live? The year is 2037. The Soviet Union never fell, and much of Europe has been consolidated under the totalitarian Union of Friendship. On the tiny island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a forty-eight-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic bureaucrat with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment: to stage her own death and then to observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the six other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure? But then a storm rolls in, the power goes out, and the real game begins. . . .
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