Italy? Yes Please!

Guess what, lovely bloggery bloggers? It's Friday! And even better, I've got Catherine McNamara here, talking about her new book, The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italy.

Now, I'm not divorced nor do I live in Italy, but being an expat myself, I'm always fascinated by other expat  experiences. So... take it away, Catherine!

Living in Translation

Anyone who has lived abroad knows that learning a language involves embarrassing moments. You ask for a baguette in your best French and the baker looks back with a perplexed stare. You study Italian in Milan and end up in a town where everybody speaks an incomprehensible dialect. Or, you ask if there are any preservativi (condoms) in a jar of jam instead of conservanti (preservatives), and set a whole room laughing!

When I set out to write my women’s commercial novel ‘The Divorced Lady’s Companion to Living in Italy’ I wasn’t sure I would find a convincing storyline or voice. I’d published a lot of short stories, some tragi-comic, but I’d never tackled humour or romance, or written a story set in this noisy, flashy country despite living here for eight years. I knew that my character Marilyn Wade was in Italy to reformat her life, and I knew that her learning Italian would provide lots of laughs. I also knew that the most immediate way of learning a language is to acquire a partner who speaks the desired tongue, and that the most effective lessons take place beneath the sheets.

Enter virile agronomist Federico, who has already snatched a few of my readers’ hearts.

I had a wonderful time writing this book – so far from my own experience that I think it made my imagination wilder. One summer I set up my desk in the chicken shed attached to the house so my children couldn’t hunt me down every five minutes. Everyone knows that writers like to keep on their coffee highs for as long as possible. And that to unfurl an idea you have to isolate yourself and keep your thoughts well-fed while you urge the words onto the page.

So how much easier is it when English is your secret niche and your mundane daily activities are carried out in Italian? This is something that I have discovered about living in translation, where I have my writerly secrets at my desk and my stories vivid in my thoughts, undisturbed as I pay bills in Italian, chitchat at the fruit market, drink aperitivi and make my awful, horrible language trip-ups. These days however, I have learned NOT to ask if there are any condoms in the jam!


Thank you, Catherine! The book is available here, and on all the usual suspects.

I would like to know: Have you had an embarrassing experience, linguistic or otherwise, when travelling? Share!

PS: Thank you for the fashion input on Wednesday! I'll reveal my purchases on Monday. Have a great weekend!