The desert plays an important role in the novel. What interests you about the desert?
The desert can become an obsession and make a person lose their mind, but it can also provide a revelation. However, the desert is home only to the Bedouins. In the wilderness, you can easily lose your bearings, lose track of time, confuse the heavens, get lost, die of thirst and sunstroke. But you can also fall in love with the desert.
In the novel Tears of the Desert, the Bedouins heal the diseases of the soul. The desert used to be a sea! So the Desert is not just a desert.
Behind the bright surface – a kind of desert miracle – both Bogdan and Mare are very lonely young people before they meet. Do you see such “loneliness in the crowd” every day, or do you think it is a disease of the new world – in a way, you can say? There are different types of loneliness. There is loneliness that heals, but there is also loneliness that eats from the inside. There is a forced isolation and isolation in the population. It is hard to say whether this is the fault of the modern world. Did people feel differently a hundred years ago? Almost… The Sahara and the desert are in.
Perhaps the modern world has made loneliness a disease and offers a “medicine” for it, which does not heal, but numbs. The isolation of the two main characters is also a form of illness. hereditary, hereditary. Yes, Mare was born in the Sahara, but Bogdan – in a special “desert” – a world where you have to learn to adapt and survive from childhood – a very lonely world.
The novel has a desert and a desert. The desert is also a metaphor for today’s world, where loneliness is a disease that has affected the tissues of vital organs, turning people into living corpses.
You actually rewrote the novel several times. What did you learn about yourself and about writing in the process? What was the worst, what was the most interesting, what was the most satisfying?
True, during the process, the story changed several times, whole chapters disappeared and new ones appeared.
There were times when I wanted to give up and throw everything aside. However, I had been able to fall in love with the characters of the novel, and it seemed that if I gave up everything, I would be betraying myself and them – I would be giving up part of my soul
There were times when it seemed that writing became a healing process, I felt that I was also recovering a lost part of my soul, I was repairing something in myself. The process itself was the most interesting thing, especially at the stage when I started to feel the novel as a three-dimensional reality. In other words, the characters had become real, and when I sat down at the computer, it was as if I was connected to their world.
How does it feel now that the book is almost, almost coming to the readers?
The feeling is disturbing! Glad the novel has come to fruition. Concerned about how it will interact with the people who read it. Since the story is not for me, I want to protect my heroes… I hope that Mare and Bogdan have survived and found each other.
2024-11-17 22:00:00
#Night #Tales #meets #21st #century #Anda #Kalinkas #clear #coming #readers
What themes related to loneliness and healing does Anda Kalinkas explore in ‘Tears of the Desert,’ and how do they reflect the human experience in relation to the desert landscape?
We are thrilled to have Anda Kalinkas, the author of the upcoming novel ‘Tears of the Desert,’ and Dr. Farah al-Majdi, a renowned desert ecologist and anthropologist, with us today for an exclusive interview about the desert and its impact on the human psyche. Anda, can you tell us what drew you to explore the desert theme in your writing? Dr. al-Majdi, as an expert in desert ecology, what intrigues you most about this barren landscape?
Anda, in your novel, the characters Bogdan and Mare embody different types of loneliness. How does the desert serve as a backdrop for their emotional journeys? Dr. al-Majdi, do you think modern society has made loneliness more prevalent, or is it something that humans have always struggled with? How does the concept of ‘loneliness in the crowd’ relate to the desert?
You mentioned that writing this novel was a healing process for you. Can you expand on that? As an author, what did you learn about yourself and the writing process through revising and rewriting ’Tears of the Desert’? How did your understanding of your characters evolve over time?
Dr. al-Majdi, as a scientist, how does your research influence your perception of the desert? How do you think the general public views the desert and how can we reconcile that image with its rich cultural and ecological histories?
both of you, now that the book is almost ready for publication, what messages or themes do you hope readers will take away from ‘Tears of the Desert’? Do you think this story will resonate with people living in urban environments? How can we all find solace and connection in today’s highly connected but often isolating world?
