Everyday Stories

English writer Toni Parsons, among the most widely read contemporary authors in the world, recently visited Serbia to promote his latest novel My Favorite Wife.

By Mila Milosavljević
Photo by Aleksandar Anđić

The novel of the year, My Favorite Wife by Toni Parsons, released by Belgrade’s Publishing House Laguna immediately after its publication in England, was also promoted in Serbia immediately following its promotion in London. Parsons is well known in the world, including among the Serbian reading public, for his earlier bestsellers Man and Boy and One For My Baby. As was the case several years ago, readers in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš waited in long lines to meet the writer during his recent visit.

- Mr. Parsons, the plot of your novel is set in China, in Shanghai. Why did you take such a literary geographic step out?

I think that Shanghai is the centre of everything that is happening in China, and that China is the centre of many economic and political changes in the world, a sort of change in the power balance. Shanghai is today reminiscent of London as described by Charles Dickens, a large city abounding in inequality and contradictions. Those who fight to survive live in sharp contrast to the extremely rich. And although the city looks like a place where it is easy to live, it is certainly interesting for a novelist.

- What inspired you to write a book like this?

I frequently visit this part of the world. My best friend works as a lawyer in Hong Kong. I have been visiting him four times a year for more than 20 years. The whole time, I was searching for a story in this part of the world. I finally found just such a story, about a love triangle in Shanghai, and I felt that this was a story for me. This is actually my life, or more exactly my love story. This is a story about love between me and my wife. The novel is abundant in emotion, with real characters from my life.

- It might be said that you are on the “man’s side”?

Because I am a man, it is easier for me to express a man’s view, but I am surprised to see that all three central characters have their weight in this book. Some take the mistress’s side and think that he should leave his wife. Some take the wife’s side, while men, naturally, identify with the main male character in the love triangle and in the novel. All the while, I have been trying to give the characters the same weight because of the importance of their roles in the story.

- What played the key role in your novel Man and Boy becoming so popular and conquering the hearts of millions of readers worldwide?

I didn’t count on such popularity. Simply, I took up writing an ordinary life story, a story like many other life stories. Anyone can write such a story. My hero Harry, in one period of his life between youth and middle age, faces two important life events – the death of his father and divorce. Imagine how many people recognized and identified with my hero, how many had the feeling that this was a story about their families, that this was their life story.

Everybody can understand my stories because no one is immune to situations and states that I write about. These are ordinary things that everyone passes through; watching your parents get old, fighting to save a love relationship, being a good parent or fighting to be good at your job. These are universal themes for everybody in the world.

- It is interesting that you came to Serbia immediately following the promotion of your novel in London.

Serbia is the first country after England to have published the book. It was published 12 days after its English premiere and it was logical to start my world tour from here. Usually the period between the London premiere and the world tour lasts a bit longer, but as Serbia is the first country to have published the book, I came here. It is logical to come here first.

- You encountered Serbian readers after two years. What was this meeting like?

The same as when I came to Belgrade for the first time, to the International Book Fair, where readers greeted me very warmly. It was a touching encounter. It is pleasant for every writer to see lines of readers waiting to get a copy of his book signed. That happened in Novi Sad and Belgrade. I am very happy that people here like my books.

- What are you currently working on?

My themes continue to be themes from everyday life. These are love, family, marriage. Of course, every new story requires being original and must be expressed in a fresh way, and every one of my books is original in its own way. I am writing a novel entitled Heart- Shaped. The main character is a middle-aged man who suffered a heart attack and underwent a heart transplantation. It happened that he got the heart of a 12-year-old, which completely changed his future life philosophy. Here I deal with the theme of male maturity, of maturing.

- Your novels possess fresh, sincere emotions, skillfully built characters, almost beyond every literary fiction. It is impossible to get over the impression of an autobiographic stamp in your fiction. How much autobiographical information is there in your novels?

I might say that half of what I write is autobiographic, things based on real situations from my life that speak about people around me, about people I share my life with, while the other half is fiction. I think that fictional elements must be as strong as real ones, so that I occasionally wonder where the crossing is, which is often vague or perhaps doesn’t exist at all.

- Although you enjoy worldwide popularity in the realm of literature, you haven’t abandoned journalism. You still write columns in prestigious English magazines?

My decision to continue writing for newspapers has multiple uses. Naturally, I don’t first think in terms of material, but about the fact that for a writer it is good to be disciplined through journalism, which always imposes deadlines. Simply put, you cannot go over the red line. You have to work when you are ill and when you don’t feel like writing. As a novelist, this also teaches me to finish a book within the reasonable terms I set to myself. I don’t allow it to stretch on indefinitely. Also, journalism sharpens you, obligates you to write well. If you don’t write well, nobody will read you. The same applies to literature. On the other hand, don’t forget that writing is a very lonely trade. When you write a book, you are absolutely alone. I don’t like being alone, I like to be part of a team. Thus, through journalism I satisfy the human need to associate, to work on a team, to share successes and failures alike. As a writer, I bear everything alone.

Born in London’s East End, Toni Parsons worked as a music journalist in the 1970s, writing articles about the “new wave” and the explosion of punk rock. He regularly worked for BBC’s Late Review and is the current columnist for the Daily Mirror.   Toni published several books, among them Big Mouth Strikes Again, the collection of newspaper articles Bare, and he participated in writing the biography of George Michael. Following publication of his novel Man and Boy, he became a bestselling writer. In Great Britain alone, this book sold more than one million copies and was translated in forty countries. He saw the same success with his subsequent books Man and Wife, The Family Way, and Man and Boy, which topped bestseller lists worldwide for months, including in Serbia. His latest book, My Favorite Wife, was published by Laguna immediately following its English release.