I am delighted to do a Just Arrived post for you today, because the new arrival is a novella-in-flash, The Crazed Wind (Truth Serum Press), written by my friend and fellow Christchurch author, Nod Ghosh.

Not only that, but I got to go the book launch last Thursday p.m. and there’s always something very special about a book launch, which combines celebration with the sense of an event that marks both an ending and a beginning.

Shiny…

I suspect you will have questions for me, including, “What is a novella-in-flash?” The best explanation I can think of is that the form comprises a series of flash fiction pieces that can be read as standalone works but are linked in theme or subject matter to comprise an overarching, novella-length work.

Flash fiction, by the way, is very short fiction — in some cases, but not always, akin to prose poetry.

The Crazed Wind addresses the relationship between a father (resident in India) and daughter (visting from the UK) that plays out against the backdrop of societal, cultural, and familial change in India, post-independence (1947) and through to the present day. Nod maintains that The Crazed Wind is primarily fiction but is informed by personal experience and her own family history. From the readings chosen by Nod for the launch, I already know that the flash pieces, while grounded in contemporary realism, also contains elements of magical realism—but otherwise I am very much looking forward to reading and discovering more.

Nod reading from the book

The following is one of several, very positive book quotes for The Crazed Wind:

“As always with flash at its best, the power is in the space between the words. In The Crazed Wind, Ghosh provides a lush, unique collection of flash fiction that takes the reader from past to present day India and back again. The reader is taken on a turbulent journey through cultural and family divides, and is left with a disquieting truth.”

~ Eileen Merriman, author of Pieces of You and Catch Me When You Fall

The listening audience

Here’s a little bit more about Nod herself:

Nod Ghosh

Nod Ghosh was born in the U.K. to Indian parents, and works as a medical laboratory scientist. The day job involves writing the truth, which is why it’s such fun writing made up stuff at night.

Nod completed a creative writing course at the Hagley Writers’ Institute in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2014. Her stories and poems have appeared in Landfall, Takahē, JAAM, and other New Zealand and overseas publications.