I am delighted to be a part of the Bangkok Transit Blog Tour with an interview with the author Eva Fejos.
Synopsis
Bangkok: a sizzling, all-embracing, exotic city where the past and the present intertwine. It’s a place where anything can happen… and anything really does happen. The paths of seven people cross in this metropolis. Seven seekers, for whom this city might be a final destination. Or perhaps it is only the start of a new journey? A successful businessman; a celebrated supermodel; a man who is forever the outsider; a young mother who suddenly loses everything; a talented surgeon, who could not give the woman he loved all that she desired; a brothel’s madam; and a charming young woman adopted at birth. Why these seven? Why did they come to Bangkok now, at the same time? Do chance encounters truly exist?
Interview with Eva Fejos, author of Bangkok Transit
1. What was the inspiration for Bangkok Transit?
I love Bangkok! The first time I visited the city, I fell in love with it. There was no question that I was going to write a novel that takes place in the capital of Thailand. I wanted to return to this city in my imagination. I have to tell you that I only invent basic situations and make a few textual sketches of characters when I start a new book. In Bangkok Transit, it was sending off a few people, the seekers, to Bangkok. When I began writing the novel, I wasn’t even sure what each of them was searching for. All I knew was that they had some task there.
2. Who is your favourite character in Bangkok Transit?
I like – of course – the Hungarian heroine, Teri, who is strong enough to step out from her mother’s shadow. She is famous and successful, but she slowly realizes that she followed the dreams that her mother had for her. I like the way Teri finds herself, and the way she finds her own dreams in Bangkok. But I also love my other characters: Lian, the American-Thai girl, who is looking for her roots in Bangkok, and the British heroine, Anne and her vulnerability, and I like David, even though his personality is very contradictory. While I was writing, there were times when I really hated David. He was a negative character in my eyes at the beginning of the book. I hated the way he behaved with women. Then, he came to life, his hues deepened, and he showed me that life wasn’t just black and white, and I couldn’t hate him anymore.
3. What is your favourite scene in Bangkok Transit?
I have more than one favourite scene: I like the chapter when Lian and David go to Ayutthaya, and Lian helps David to explore the ruins of the ancient kingdom. David hates ruins, but he touches the bricks and suddenly communes with the past… I like to reread when Paul meets Helen and they go to discover Bangkok together… and of course I like when Anne gets to the orphanage, and the way she can forgive the one she likes.
4. Where is your favourite place to write?
I can write anywhere, anytime! Really, when I’m deeply involved in my novel, I can write anywhere. Of course, I have a favourite place to write: our terrace with the view of my beautiful hometown, Budapest.
5. What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
My advice is to read, read, read! If you want to be a successful writer, read as much as you can. You will learn something from every book you read (even if you don’t like some of them). Also, write as much as you can! If you’re writing a novel, make sure you spend time with your manuscript every day.
6. What are you currently reading?
I’ve just finished Sycamore Row by John Grisham and started to read Zoey & The Moment of Zen by Cat Lavoie.
7. What is Bangkok like?
I spend winters there. It is a colorful, exotic world of dizzying commotion, and yet it gives off an air of tranquility. I like the Thai people’s way of thinking that teaches you not to look at what was yesterday, not to fear what comes tomorrow, but rather to live in the here and now, the moment itself.
8. Please describe Bangkok Transit in three words.
Romantic, exciting, encouraging.
All About Eva Fejos
- Eva Fejos is a Hungarian writer and journalist.
- She has had 13 best-selling novels published in Hungary so far.
- Bangkok Transit is her first best-seller, which was initially published in 2008.
- She has won several awards as a journalist, and thanks to one of her articles, the legislation pertaining to human egg donation was modified, allowing couples in need to acquire donor eggs more easily.
- She spends her winters in Bangkok.
- She likes novels that have several storylines running parallel.
- She has visited all the places she’s written about.
- She has sat through a few sex reassignment surgeries in a run-down little clinic in Bangkok; spent a few days at an elephant orphanage in Thailand; and has investigated the process of how Thai children are put up for adoption while visiting several orphanages.
- She founded her own publishing company in Hungary last year, where she not only publishes her own books, but foreign books too, hand-picked by her.
- Her books published in Hungary thus far are: Holtodiglan (Till Death Do Us Part), Bangkok Transit, Hotel Bali, Csajok (Chicks), Eper reggelire (Strawberries for Breakfast), A mexikói(The Mexican), Cuba Libre, Dalma, Helló, London, Karácsony New Yorkban (Christmas in New York), Karibi nyár (Caribbean Summer), Szeretlek, Bangkok (Bangkok, I Love You), Most kezdődik (Starting Now – the new edition of Till Death Do Us Part), Nápolyi vakáció (Vacation in Naples – the English version to be published in 2014), and Száz éjjel vártam (I Waited One Hundred Nights – to be published in spring of 2014).
Add Bangkok Transit to your Goodreads shelf! Follow along with the Bangkok Transit Tour via Fictionella! Connect with Eva at fejoseva.com!
No comments:
Post a Comment