ARABESQUE
M G da Mota
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GENRE: historical psychological drama
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BLURB:
A
woman living alone in a coastal Sussex town in 1998 plants a copper beech
sapling at 3 a.m. on a dark, cold night. Why?
A
ballet dancer in 1960s East Germany is oppressed, longs for escaping with his
little daughter but not his wife. Why? Will he make it?
In
2022 Karsten von Stein, widower and principal of the Royal Ballet, with two
young children, meets Ivone Benjamim, a Portuguese, newly-arrived principal
dancer. They discover a magical chemistry when dancing and soon it transfers to
their private lives.
Against
the background of ballet and its dancers, a woman called Grace tells her story
from a rehab centre. Obsessive, delusional she begins believing Ivone robbed
her of the man of her dreams—Karsten. And then a skeleton is found in a
garden...What connects all these people and their stories?
You’ll
be the audience facing the stage of this balletic novel.
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Excerpt
Three:
First Variation – Amadeus
Berlin, East Germany, July 1965
Amadeus gazes at his wife. Margarete or Grete, as is her
preference, sleeps, exhausted from the effort of birth. Her hair appears glued
to her forehead, wet from perspiration. Next to her, in a plain white hospital
baby cot, their daughter is also asleep. He touches the little girl’s head
gently. The baby, a small bundle inside the clothes too large for her, stirs
marginally but does not wake. He arranges the cover around her slight body to
keep her warm. She was born with hair, if one could call the blonde fluff hair.
His chest swells. He already loves that little person with all the force of his
being. Swallowing a couple of emotional tears he realises he will do anything,
anything, to protect her. He wants her to grow up in peace, in freedom, to be
able to make her own choices. With a heavy heart he wonders whether such wishes
will ever be possible in this German Democratic Republic where democratic is a
word devoid of meaning.
East Germany may be a lot of things but democratic is not
one of them. Will he be able to adequately protect this tiny being and give her
all she deserves? His chest tightens. He may have to shelter her from her own
mother. Feeling shivers down his spine he recalls how his fears, his suspicions
were confirmed a few months earlier, just after Grete told him she was
pregnant.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
M G
da Mota is Margarida Mota-Bull’s pen name for fiction. She is a
Portuguese-British novelist with a love for classical music, ballet and opera.
Under her real name she also writes reviews of live concerts, CDs, DVDs and
books for two classical music magazines on the web: MusicWeb International and
Seen and Heard International. She is a member of the UK Society of Authors,
speaks four languages and lives in Sussex with her husband. Her website, called
flowingprose.com, contains photos and information.
Website:
https://www.flowingprose.com/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/m.g.da.mota
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/margarida-mota-bull/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mgdamota/
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Thank you for featuring ARABESQUE today.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sandra for featuring my novel today and a very special thank you for the fabulous work you did designing the cover, using the images I sent you. Excellent.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover - so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHi Michele, I'm M G da Mota, author of Arabesque. The images are my husband's who is a very good photographer but the composition and design of the cover are by the owner of this blog, i.e. Sandra Lopez. She's terrific.
DeleteIm looking forward to reading this book. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete