But I digress.

Horrible, horrible Charlie is the anti-hero in the new, self-published debut E-novel Run Charlie Run by local writer John Wiber (see Kobo and Amazon links).

A recent English graduate from the University of Ottawa, Wiber’s book explores the dark side of our city, while painting an unflattering portrait of the book’s protagonist.

“He’s self absorbed,” says Wiber, when asked about his fictional creation.  ”He’s indecisive,  he’s pornographic, he’s superficial.”  In my view, the author is being too kind to Charlie.

Before turning to the main story, it is worth mentioning the genesis of the novel which is a crazy tale on its own.  While staying at his then girlfriend’s house a few years back, says Wiber, he had to jump out of the bedroom window after his girlfriend’s unsuspecting roommates suddenly came home.

“I shattered my heel,” recalls Wiber.  ”So during the next two to three months, while I was on pain killers, I wrote the book in my shit hole of a bachelor apartment, that you probably have an idea of what it looks like.”  If Wiber’s pad was anything like the horrific, post-apocalyptic dump that Charlie calls home, then my heart goes out to him.

Photo of John Wiber by Jeremey Laurin

After completing the first draft of the book, the native of Southampton, Ontario, but now Ottawa resident spent a long time reworking it, before releasing it online in April under the pen name John Dodsworth, the latter being a middle name.

At present, the book is available electronically for about $1, which is less than most cups of coffee, although Wiber does plan to release an audio version on iTunes by the end of the year.

The book’s plot focuses on a crime ring that operates in a run-down (some would say evil) house on Percy Street.  Wiber’s creepy description of this operation is so realistic, I don’t think I will ever be able to stroll down Percy again without thinking of this novel.

Readers who find the terrible crimes portrayed to be unrealistic, only have to skim the recent coverage of criminal trials in the city to see that horrible crimes do occur in Ottawa.

With that in mind, I found the story to be quite captivating overall, even if the writing  is uneven at times, although the latter is something that Wiber is aware of.  ”I know it’s not as grammatically sound as it could be, but I wanted to leave it raw, with stream of consciousness,” he says.

If I were to level one criticism, it is that the story takes too long to get to the main plot that is pretty good, albeit quite disturbing.  In my view, too many chapters are spent focussing on Charlie’s imbecile behaviour, before turning to the meat of the story which, if you enjoy horror or dark fiction, is a page turner.

Looking forward, Wiber tells me that he is currently working on two novels that he hopes to publish, one of which is a sequel to Run Charlie Run.  Based on what I read in the first book, I look forward to reviewing his second literary release.

“Damn right libraries shouldn’t be book-lined Internet cafes. They should be book-lined, computer-filled information-dojos where communities come together to teach each other black-belt information literacy, where initiates work alongside noviates to show them how to master the tools of the networked age from the bare metal up.”

The question of what a library should be is particularly topical as the Ottawa Public Library is launching a month-long public consultation on its future. Called Imagine, the campaign asks Ottawans to share their ideas about what roles the library should keep, which ones it should set aside, and what new roles it should play in the future.

In my opinion, the Doctorow blog post is a must-read when thinking about the possibilities of the library of the future. His key point is that, in an age of information overload, libraries and librarians are more important than ever. They can help the public navigate through the tons of chaff to get to the sweet kernels of real knowledge hidden in the internet. His next step for libraries is for them to become a place where people can go to truly understand the technology that increasingly rules our lives. Imagine students taking apart old laptops to see how they work, or old-timers like me getting up close access to a 3D printer.

The OPL’s Library of Today video posted above makes the point that, even today, libraries are more than just “book-lined internet cafes”. They teach people how to use technology, get media to housebound individuals, and give access to people who don’t otherwise have access to the web. They also ease access to real life places like museums or help people navigate processes like starting your own business.

If you have ideas about the library of the future, contribute to the OPL’s campaign by June 15th.

For in a world where 140-characters are all the rage, who has time to read hundreds of pages, let alone invest the mental effort to process a story full of complexity, nuance and wonder?

Fortunately for book lovers (and there are still many), English-born writer Edward Rutherfurd puts the lie to the view that epic literary sagas are passé.

“People are reading more than ever,” says Rutherfurd, when asked to comment on the popular claim that the novel is a dying art form.

Local bibliophiles can see his brilliance in person this coming Monday, May 13, when he speaks at Saint Paul University Amphitheatre at 223 Main Street.

For me, Rutherfurd is a fantastic writer who is the antithesis of the overhyped Tweet.  Known for writing long, epic novels like Sarum, a sweeping look at English history, or works like London and New York that tell the brilliant stories of those incredible cities, he has now released a new work of fiction called Paris, a riveting saga about the City of Lights that runs more than 800 pages and looks at Parisian history over a span of more than 700 years, from the 13th to 20th centuries.

The book moves back and forth across time by focussing on the lives of several families, whose political passions, love affairs, secrets and human dreams / frailties criss-cross with each other and the city’s history.  The captivating saga covers such moments as the building of the Eiffel Tower, the construction of Notre Dame Cathedral, the horror of the First World War, the upheaval of the Paris Commune, and the joy of the Belle Époque.

“I fell in love with Paris at a young age,” says Rutherfurd, who has regularly visited France throughout his life.  ”I have also fallen in love in Paris.”

His wonderful new book on Paris is a fantastic journey through time, which quenches the human desire (which has existed for thousands of years) for being entertained with dramatic stories. In fact, and notwithstanding our culture’s obsession with Twitter, popular culture is still filled with epic tales full of complexity.

“Look at Game of Thrones,” says Rutherfurd about the popular book and TV series.  ”This is old saga stuff.”

This interest in epic stories also exists with the millennial generation, who supposedly have the attention span of a two-year-old toddler.

“I have two children in their 20s,” says Rutherfurd.  ”It’s not that they have no attention span, but that they want instant gratification …. But even they, when you grab their attention (with a story), they get riveted.”

Looking forward, Ruterfurd reveals that he is working on a TV series that he would like to release in the future.  As well, he says that he has the professional goal of writing a novel that is his best yet.  In the meantime, you can see him this coming Monday as he talks about his wonderful new book.

Edward Rutherfurd will be speaking on Monday, May 13, at  Saint Paul University Amphitheatre at 223 Main Street.  General tickets are $15, reduced tickets $10, and the event is free for members of the Ottawa Writers Festival.  Ottawa-based author Charlotte Gray will be the moderator of the event, which is scheduled to start at 7 pm.

What some local residents may not be aware of, however, is his remarkable literary career that has seen Doucet publish numerous books and several plays.

“The reality is that I have always been an artist and a writer,” Doucet tells me in a phone interview.  ”This is my lifetime’s work.”

While his involvement in city politics from 1997 to 2010 saw him focus primarily on urban issues, he has now returned to his literary roots with a new novel called Shooting the Bruce (click here for eBook).

Photo of Clive Doucet by Andrew Balfour

This touching story revolves around Tom Travis, a Canadian soldier who served as a peacekeeper in several countries. When he is stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, during the brutal war that took place there in the 1990s, he has a mental breakdown.  After witnessing the most violent war in Europe since World War Two, he wakes up one day and can no longer recognize himself in the mirror.

Suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, Travis leaves the army for a civilian life.  Unfortunately, his mental struggles continue to haunt him and he breaks up with his fiancé.   Alone, unemployed and unsure where to live, he eventually settles in the fictitious small town of Wemje, Ontario, in Bruce County, where he establishes a wildlife photography business and begins the process of psychological healing.

“He went to hell and back,” says Doucet when asked about Travis.  ”Going from Sarajevo … to Bruce County is a big step.”

The ensuing novel focuses on how people reinvent themselves.  In regard to Travis, this can be seen in the play on the verb “to shoot,” where he goes from a world where he routinely fires guns, to a tranquil rural setting where he shoots photographs of wildlife.

He is not the only character, however, who is changing or searching for meaning.  There is Hannah Eaglesmith, the reporter for the local newspaper the Wemje Advocate, who is moving on from a failed marriage, while doing everything she can to teach her children about their aboriginal roots.

Then there is the young son of the owner of the Wemje Advocate, who first meets Travis while sports shooting, but then starts changing his views on nature after accompanying Travis on awe inspiring trips to photograph eagles.  In fact, this questioning of hunters who kill animals for pure sport is a recurring theme in the book, as Travis, the former soldier who is traumatized by war, criticizes rural sportsmen who kill for pleasure.

“I was the media officer for gun control at the Department of Justice,” says Doucet, when asked why the use of guns play such a strong role in the book.  ”I feel very strongly about gun control and this spilled over into the book.”

While Doucet’s past government experience does influence this novel, the heart and soul of the story lies with Travis’ struggles as he transitions to civilian life.  So make no mistake, this very well-written book is not a didactic attempt to push forward a viewpoint, but rather a beautiful story about healing and rediscovery.

“That is the fundamental nature of the human condition,” says Doucet.  ”We are always inventing ourselves… The great job for humans is a constant struggle for meaning.”

Ricardo Ramirez, the police inspector in charge of the Havana Major Crimes Unit, can see dead people. Yet again, his ability to interact with the ghosts of murdered victims may be nothing more than a mental disease, perhaps even the same one that killed his grandmother.

Amidst this personal anguish inside the head of a Cuban detective, a Canadian police officer from Ottawa on vacation in Havana is arrested for the rape and murder of a young boy. From this captivating beginning, local mystery writer Peggy Blair opens her fascinating debut novel The Beggar’s Opera, which tells the story of what is arguably Cuba’s greatest fictional police inspector.

The sequel The Poisoned Pawn, released this past February, continues the highly complex plot, which encompasses Canada-Cuba relations, an international criminal ring with links to the Vatican, and images from the streets of Ottawa that residents often ignore.

The idea for the books stem from a trip that Blair took to Havana in December 2006 with her daughter.  Having just left a 30-year legal career, which included working in the heart wrenching residential school process, she was in a period of transition.

Photo of Peggy Blair by Ryan Parent

“I was trying at the time to decide what to do next,” Blair tells me in a phone interview. “It was at this time that my daughter came home from McGill and said, ‘Mom you can’t just sit around.’”

Moved by her daughter’s words, as well as her trip to Old Havana in Christmas of 2006, Blair came up with the idea of writing a mystery set in Cuba. While she had never written fiction before, she did have many years of experience working as a criminal defence lawyer and a Crown prosecutor.

Blair’s literary efforts have resulted in some unforgettable characters. There is Inspector Ramirez, a first-class detective who sees the ghosts of murdered people. In addition to solving crimes, he has to deal with the shortages facing Cuba, such as the lack of fuel for police vehicles.

Then there is Hector Apiro, a brilliant pathologist and one of Cuba’s top plastic surgeons who suffers from dwarfism. His small physical stature hides his genius mind and deep compassion.

“I see Apiro as the moral compass of the books,” says Blair. “You know those stickers that say, ‘What would Jesus do?’ Well, ‘what would Apiro do?’”

I completely agree with Blair’s assessment, as I always found myself siding with Apiro, even in the second book when … well, you will have to read the novel to find out.

Then there is Charlie Pike from the second book, an aboriginal police officer who started as a beat cop on the streets of Winnipeg, and who escorts Ramirez during his trip to Canada. (The first book takes place in Havana, the second in Ottawa). Pike and Ramirez talk a lot about the horrific effects of Canada’s residential schools, a subject that Blair knows very well due her work in aboriginal law, and which plays a central role in the plot.

Photo courtesy of Peggy Blair

Combine these characters with a cop accused of murder, malevolent priests, a kind hearted Ottawa police chief, a failed marriage and the death of a police officer in Ottawa, and you have the script for a soap opera. Thanks to Blair’s excellent writing and attention to detail, however, the books turn out to be page turners rather than a cheesy telenovela.

“You have these characters who are grounded in fact, because you have to or else it is not believable,” says Blair.

Inevitably, people reading the books will compare them to present day Cuba. Blair quickly points out, however, that she only went to Cuba once, and that the story is set during the holiday season in late-2006 and early-2007.

“The books are in a very tight time frame,” she says. “I had one reader who just contacted me about (the books saying that) Cubans cannot go into tourist restaurants and that is just not true,” says Blair. ”But it was true from 2006 to 2009.”

She also says that she has no plans to return to Cuba. “I will forget what it was like if I went back,” she says.

If you want to see Blair speak, she will be participating in the Criminally Great Writing event at the Ottawa Writers Festival that is taking place Sunday, April 28, at 8:30 pm at Knox Presbyterian Church at 120 Lisgar Street (at Elgin).  Tickets are $10 to $15.

You can follow Blair on her blog, author website, on her twitter account, and her Facebook page.

Many respond like well-seasoned self-promoters. Some scoff. Others are humbled and end up chewing their way through some kind of statement which they hope straddles the divisive line between the aloof and the thoughtful. But probably now more than ever – in our information age, where everyone is producing– the question proves fruitful; why should we care? I ask myself this often, especially when I sit down to type out some text for the internet.

This week is writer’s fest, and on April 20^th, Etgar Keret will be speaking with Jonathan Goldstein. Etgar Keret is one of my favorite contemporary writers, and I’ll be in attendance. But why should you care? Well, If you don’t like reading or the telling of stories, you probably shouldn’t. But if you do, and don’t know Keret, he’s worth checking out.

A commonly used maxim states that a book either appeals to our hearts or our heads. By appealing to our hearts – despite the fact that it’s nothing more than blood pump – a work hits us emotionally. For the hearty, Keret’s work invigorates. What makes his work so “human”, as so many critics have suggested it does, is that Keret, similar to Kafka (one of his strongest influences), deals with the trapping of life which everyone experiences and from which no one escapes. These are the snares of every action, every decision, every situation which wraps its arms around us and which we must deal with. While not every reader can relate to every circumstance which Keret describes in his stories, every person knows that our past and our decisions lurk in our basements and cabinets, in the tubes of our toothpaste and on the soles of our shoes. We, for the eternity our lives, will always wake up in the world as ourselves, and despite new jobs, or partners, or cars, or life changes, there’s nothing we can do about it. For Keret’s characters, these moments of capture prove to be sad, scary and many times funny.

David Foster Wallace when writing (and speaking) about Kafka’s humour – specifically the difficulty in understanding why it is that Kafka is funny – stated that “ The horrific struggle to establish a human self results in a self whose humanity is inseparable from that horrific struggle…Our endless journey toward home is in fact our home.”  Keret works in a similar strain. His stories, while both comedic and sad, are sometimes reflective and at other times blunt. Noted are the ways that characters act and are acted upon many times without that diachronic why we are so accustomed to seeing in our fiction. Like a French New-Wave film, in a Keret story, sometimes life just happens. Many narratives blur the lines between fantasy and reality. They slip into subconscious dream states, or surreal adventures.  And while this might sound gimmicky, what makes it all work is the notion that while we are in fact trapped, utterly trapped, we never lose the ability to imagine; the what-if never dies. It’s always beside us.

For the brainy, (the craft diggers – those searching for the “new”) – Keret’s most salient trait is the length of his fiction. His most recent collection, “Suddenly, a Knock at the Door” is 176 pages and has 30-odd stories. Keret has a knack for getting to the “incident” so incredibly fast and yet, simultaneously, fleshing out the characters in such a way that we care for them, can understand their plight, or – and most importantly – are willing, in the absence of those two, to go along for the ride. His hooks are ingeniously hooky, and his terse yet subtly poetic prose is perfectly rendered to provide insight where we want it and background fleshing when we need it. His stories are delicious little gems that remind me at times of the work of Shiela Heti. They are strange and fun, distinctively amoral and, for the most part, were able to catch me by surprise.

Not everything in the collection leaps off the page. Some pieces feel unfinished, and in others, particularly the longer ones, the pace seems to drag and the narrative loses the quick zing and startling turns which Keret usually uses so cleverly.

It’s a pretty special treat to have Keret here in Ottawa, and unlike many writers, he truly enjoys doing readings. It should be thought provoking and fun to hear the conversation between Goldstein and this award-winning Israeli writer of both stories and scripts.

Suddenly, A Knock on the Door is taking place at the National Arts Center Panorama room (53 Elgin) this Saturday, April 20 at 8:30pm. Tickets are $20 in advance, $22 at the door or $15/$17 for the reduced price and free for members.

The spring 2013 edition is set to be another fantastic gathering, with authors discussing such topics as the creation of the universe, time, global food production, songwriting, poetry and mystery novels.  One event that particularly caught my eye was the songwriter’s circle with Alan Neal, host of All in a Day on CBC Radio One.

“We look at music as a language,” says Sean Wilson, artistic director of the Writers Festival, when asked why music is being included in a literary event.

For Wilson, a writer’s festival celebrates words, and the definition of “words” should be as broad as possible.  “As the bible says, in the beginning there was the word, so we are starting from the moment of creation,” he explains with a poetic response.

While the bulk of the spring 2013 events run from April 25 to 30 (see here for the full schedule and tickets), there are some fantastic appetizers, such as the talk earlier this month by renowned mystery novelist Alexander McCall Smith, tomorrow’s event (April 18) with Giller Prize winning Canadian novelist Will Ferguson, and Saturday’s discussion (April 20) with Israeli writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret.  In preparation for the festival, Apartment613 spoke to three different participants.

Photo courtesy of the writers festival

Lee Smolin

Lee Smolin is a senior faculty member and founder of the Perimeter Institute in Theoretical Physics in Waterloo.  In his recent book Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe, Smolin discusses how many scientists view time as an illusion, i.e. something that is the product of physical laws that are outside of time.

But what if this view is incorrect and time is indeed real?  While the book considers the scientific implications of this question, what really sparked my imagination were Smolin’s ethical conclusions.

“What moral lessons can we draw if time really does exist?” I ask him in a phone interview.  “That the choices we make matter,” replies Smolin. “It is a rejection of a consolation and replacing it with a challenge.”

When thinking about mortality, many people console themselves by believing that time is an illusion, and that “something” – e.g. a spirit, essence, energy, memory, etc. – can be thought to exist outside of time after death.  If time is real, however, and nothing can exist outside of time, then we cannot rely on this consolation.  What we must do instead is accept the challenge that life is fleeting, and that the choices in our lives are what will define us, Smolin tells me.

Smolin’s talk is scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, April 30, at Knox Presbyterian Church at 120 Lisgar Street (at Elgin).

Photo of Alan Neal courtesy of the writers festival

Alan Neal

There are more than 13,000 songs on Alan Neal’s i-pod.  Curious about their musical origins, he put his shuffle on random and selected the first 10 tracks that came up.  The CBC radio host then proceeded to research the stories behind each of these songs.  Neal will share his findings in a songwriter’s circle with interviews, clips and videos.  He will also be joined on stage by such musicians as Jim Bryson, Jenn Grant, The Acord and Kellylee Evans.

When asked how his research was going, Neal said that he was having a lot of fun.  For instance, one interview was with a 91-year-old singer who reflected on a tune they had sung decades earlier.

“The singer told me, ‘you know that song wasn’t even a hit,’” Neal tells me, as he recounts speaking with the bemused musical nonagenarian, who wasn’t really sure why the young nice man from Ottawa was calling about such an old tune.

Then there are the secrets behind the Aquaman track, although you will have to go to his event that starts at 8:30 pm on Tuesday, April 15, at the Knox Presbyterian Church, to find out more.

Photo of Chris Impey courtesy of the writers festival

Chris Impey

A distinguished profession of astronomy at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Chris Impey is renowned for such books as The Living Cosmos and How It Ends.  His most recent work How It Began looks at the history of the universe.  His talk in Ottawa, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 27 at Knox Presbyterian Church, will cover the themes in his books

“The main thing that I will cover is that the theory of the formation of the universe, which is 13.8 billion years old, is a mature theory of nature,” says Impey.  You may also hear him discuss the possibility of multiple universes and life on other planets.

In her remarkable début novel Ru, Saigon born but now Montreal-based writer Kim Thúy clearly demonstrates that the reports on the death of the novel have been greatly exaggerated.  In a beautifully written, poetic story, she tells the tale of a Vietnamese woman who grows up in a rich household, before fleeing Vietnam following the Communist victory in the mid-1970s in her country’s long civil war.  First landing in a Malaysian refugee camp and then moving to Quebec, the woman’s story is a moving account full of love and horror, beauty and pain, which manages to constantly celebrate the wonder of life.

Ottawa residents can hear Thúy discuss her writing this coming Wednesday, April 17, when she speaks at the Centretown location of Octopus Books at 251 Bank Street, 2nd Floor.  Admission is free.  Local poet and playwright David O’Meara, who is also the artistic director of VERSeFest and a bartender at the Manx Pub on Elgin Street, will be interviewing Thúy.

Besides the touching narrative, what is truly remarkable about Ru is its format.  Rather than using a conventional prose style, the story is told in a serious of poetic vignettes, which are akin to skimming through a literary album of photographs.

The best way I can describe this novel is to compare it to pointillism, the painting technique that uses distinct dots to create images.  Thúy’s observations are contained in short passages of one to three pages long, (literary “dots” so to speak), which when combined produce a remarkably fluid tale.

Originally published in French in 2010, Ru won the 2010 Governor General’s Award for French language fiction, in addition to other international prizes.  Translated into English in 2012, the book was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.  While it is a quick read, (I finished it in about three hours), the book’s 141 pages contain a lot of emotion, insight and characters.  A remarkable work which shows that the novel can still be a brilliant art form.

In addition to his regular writing, mclennan is a prolific blogger. When interviewing him for this story, I told him that I subscribe to hundreds of blogs, and joked that on certain days I feel that he writes more posts than I read. His main blog, which was launched in 2003, is certainly one of the most important literary sites in Ottawa, and arguably among the best in Canada. While the blog contains information on his writing career, it also has many interviews with other authors and numerous book reviews.

“I wanted to have a website where you could find everything that I am writing,” he tells me in a phone interview.  “But I also didn’t want it to be focused solely on me.” This goal has definitely been met, as mclennan estimates that he has interviewed around 800 writers since starting to publish author interviews online in 2007.

While his blog covers poetry extensively, it also discusses other genres, such as the recent interviews with U.S. comic book artist Howard Chaykin and Canadian short-story writer Tamas Dobozy.  “I have around 7,000 comic books so I am not just into poetry,” says mclennan, whose name is spelled all lowercase.

His blogging work, however, is not limited to his main blog, which is accompanied by an online index site. Thanks to his distinguished career as a publisher, he created a blog for Above / Ground Press, the Ottawa-based publisher that he created in 1993 and which has published hundreds of poetry chapbooks. He also manages the blog for Chaudiere Books, a second local publishing house that he co-founded and which releases poetry, fiction and short stories.

Photo by Christine McNair

“There is this view that Ottawa is not interesting and that is the end of it,” says mclennan, who in addition to his previously mentioned works, has also written more than 110 poetry chapbooks, and contributed to or edited about three dozen other literary works. “I’ve been telling people for 20 years that we have a great literary scene.”

Given the large amount of local talent that he has published and reviewed, mclennan is critical of those who view Ottawa as an artistic dead zone.  In his view, it’s not that our region lacks talent, but rather that we often don’t recognize what we have.

“I have been saying that Ottawa is like Canada back in the ‘60s,” he says. “We don’t acknowledge our own unless they are acknowledged elsewhere.”

When asked why there is this tendency by some areas residents to look down on local artists, mclennan gives an interesting answer. “I have a theory that Ottawa thinks it can’t be both national and local, it must only be one,” he says. By focusing on being a national capital, a lot of great local talent often does not receive the encouragement that it deserves.

In addition to the above blogs, mclennan also writes for the Ottawa poetry newsletter, as well as being the founder of the (Canadian) Small Press Book Fairs, a blog that chronicles small press fairs across Canada. He also writes two pieces a month for Open Book Ontario.

Given all his work, I asked mclennan if he ever gets frustrated by the pessimists who constantly criticise Ottawa.

“I take the long view,” he replies. “Starting a community requires infrastructure. What Pearl Pirie is doing, what VERSeFest is doing, is building infrastructure….   I grew up on a farm so I have a sense of community. My father was the kind guy who would shovel snow for five people…  You can’t do everything by yourself, you have to help build a community.”

Currently on a two-and-a-half week speaking and signing tour of Canada and the United States, McCall Smith will be in Ottawa on Wednesday, April 10, in what will be only one of two Canadian stops.

“He’s one of the writers that we have wanted to have for a number of years,” says Sean Wilson, artistic director of the Ottawa Writers Festival, organizer of the event.  “When someone like him is in North America you get on the phone to get him.”

While the April 10 event is sold out, local mystery writer Peggy Blair has announced that she will interview McCall Smith for Rogers Television.  On her Facebook page, Blair says that the interview will air at the end of April, to coincide with the spring 2013 Ottawa Writers Festival that is taking place at the end of the month. (Update: Unfortunately McCall Smith will no longer be able to do the Rogers interview – see comment below).

Born in what is now Zimbabwe, McCall Smith has written or contributed to more than 100 books, including a major textbook on law and medicine, a book on criminal law in Botswana, short story collections, best-selling children’s books, and his wildly successful mystery novels.

His best known work is the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, a series that currently has 13 books and which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, while being translated into 45 languages.

Set in Botswana in southern Africa, the No. 1 Ladies’ novels revolve around Precious Ramotswe, a brilliant and kind-hearted woman who opens her country’s first-ever female detective agency.  She soon finds herself working on several cases, such as tracking down a kidnapped boy, investigating the alleged poisoning of the sibling of a government official, and a man who wants to make amends for his past sins.

Written in clear and beautiful prose, the series offers a life-affirming portrait of Africa that is completely different from the stereotypical images on the news.  I fell in love with this uplifting and positive vision of Africa, which is wrapped up in a fantastic collection of detective stories.

“We have such a one dimensional view of Africa,” says Wilson. “When we start hearing stories about how people really live there we can see that we are all pretty similar.”  So if you haven’t read one of McCall Smith’s books, do yourself a favour and pick one up.