Yuli Tsakalou
A true story, full of stormy twists and turns, against the backdrop of the fairytale Lake Bled in Slovenia.
It’s one of those stories that leaves a bitter aftertaste, a lot of puzzle questions unanswered as you read, and at the same time one that makes you want to reach out to the heroine and tell her “I’m here” for all the nightmares she’s had. faced alone with two minor children.
Without parents, relatives and friends, homeless and single in a foreign land, with a relentless pursuer after her and adventures beyond imagination.
There was some trigger to write your new novel “The Widow of Lake Bled”;
The trigger was an angry message sent to me on messenger by the main character’s daughter, in 2017, on the occasion of a text I had written on the Internet. There was so much pain in her rage that I wanted to find out why. We communicated for a year with messages until it “sweetened” a bit and we met in person. Her family’s unimaginable adventure shocked me.
As well as a novel set in the present day, your work is also linked to a record of a 16th century legend about the so-called ‘Widow of Lake Bled’. How difficult was it for you to collect data?;
Lake Bled in Slovenia is a paradise on earth of breathtaking beauty. From its center emerges a tiny island on which there is only one Catholic church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which can also be seen on the cover of the book. In the bell tower of the church is the famous “bell of wishes”. We are all free to strike it asking for what we long for, with one commitment: everyone is allotted only one wish in their entire life. The history of the bell begins at the beginning of the 16th century and is associated with the “Widow of Lake Bled”, a real person who over the years acquired the dimensions of a local legend. In a way, which at first seems inexplicable, her life decisively affects the life of my heroine, who is Greek and lives in the 21st century. The difficulty I faced in gathering facts was that tourist guides and internet articles emphasize the fairy tale part and it took a lot of research to get to the real facts of the story.
Are there any moral principles that appeal to you or the opposite in order to create your heroes?
My heroes are created by life, as they are all real. My own intervention is about perspective, the light in which I present them to my readers, emphasizing their characteristics that they themselves often underestimate or ignore. The heroes I’m drawn to are on both extremes in terms of their morality. On the one hand, those who are distinguished by a high sense of moral principles, on the other, the immoralists who manage to deceive and manipulate the lives of the former.
Do you often base your fictional characters on real people and situations?
All my books are based on true stories and I feel blessed because so many people reach out to me to share their adventures with me. It is impossible to respond to everyone and ultimately the criterion by which I choose each time which story will become a book is my instinct. I respect the lives of my protagonists, but I also set two conditions that I never negotiate with them: first, the story will be written from my point of view, and second, they will read it themselves when the book is ready for bookstores. The only instance where I pushed, negotiated, and pleaded with my heroine is The Widow of Lake Bled. Why I hope my readers will feel it.
How much did your heroine Nausicaa’s initial refusal to see the true image of the man with whom she shared her life cost her?
Nausicaa sees without distorting glasses who her husband really was after his death. During their marriage he is willingly blind, he compromises, he forgives, he gets comfortable, he tolerates. All this comes at a time when she pays dearly for it and, what’s worse, her children also pay for it.
One would say that in your book no one has the characteristics of absolute good or absolute evil.
“The Widow of Lake Blend” delves into the “gray” areas of morality, but as you very aptly observe, it certainly does not bear the characteristics of absolute evil, nor of absolute good. I love the study of human nature and my studies in Sociology have catalyzed me as a personality, as a journalist and as a writer.
Through the pages of the family drama of the story you manage to narrate the events that those people lived through. And yet, some survived. Where did they get this power from?
The central heroine of the book, when she becomes a widow at the age of 41, draws strength from her two then minor children, 11-year-old Dioni and 9-month-old Dionysakos. However, since the story of the book was entrusted to me by the now adult daughter of the heroine, I want to tell you that she is still struggling to survive. Because survival after a tragedy is not only about the continuation of biological life, it is equally, perhaps even more, about mental recovery.
Earthquake: 275 tremors so far in Kefalonia – What worries seismologists [βίντεο]
Naxos: Two students arrested after a fight on a school trip [Βίντεο]
New Democracy: This is the organizing committee of the conference
#Maria #Panagopoulou #speaks #book