Marcel Souris

The Magic of Tiéga & Other Writings

Category: The Magic of Tiéga (page 1 of 1)

Sticky post
12 August 2020

Excerpt one

Today I’ve posted reading from my novel The Magic of Tiéga, but also something else.

My novel begins in place called Mahebourg, the town where my wife and my father were born, and where much of our family still lives. Over two weeks ago now, on the 25th July, a Japanese tanker the MV Wakashio ran aground just off the coast of Mahebourg. Just a week later the ship’s hull fractured and oil began to leak into the sea. With little official help, the people of the Mahebourg and other volunteers banded together in an attempt to stop the oil spreading, an effort that is ongoing, with people often working tirelessly into the night. Many are out there braving the dangers caused by the spillage to deploy improvised floating barriers, others have been dredging the oil which escaped these cordons. Those who are not on the water are feeding the volunteers and gathering the necessary supplies. All this done with their own resources and under their own coordination. However, despite this heroic effort the oil has continued to spread along the eastern coast.

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Sticky post
28 July 2020

Origins

It could be said that The Magic of Tiéga was written, if not in response to or to correct, then at least to add some depth to people’s general perception of Mauritius.

To most this name brings to mind an island paradise, situated somewhere in the Indian Ocean or maybe even the Caribbean Sea; the kind of place one takes one’s family for the holiday of a lifetime. Palm trees are imagined, white sandy beaches, a sea blue and clear and warm, and of course there’s rum, and let us not forget the Dodo. This is a destination for the exclusive set, not those used to jaunts over to Málaga or Magaluf or cheap European city breaks. Although things have changed it still very much holds this prestige: ‘Wasn’t Mauritius where so-and-so celebrity went on their hols, or this or that member of royalty?’ you might hear.

As for its people they’re black or brown aren’t they? Indian or African looking, no mixed, no all of the above. Are they indigenous? Well that one gets a real shrug, for unless you have some connection to the island or you’re a specialist scholar, why would you know? If you’re French maybe you could answer a few more of these questions, but in Britain you’d pretty much draw a blank.

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Research Books - The Magic of Tiega
Sticky post
8 July 2020

How Long?

Eight years is a long time to work on a single project, especially when the first draft is completed within six months. Yet, from start to finish this is how long it took me to write The Magic of Tiéga. To be honest, if I’d know it would take that long, I might never have begun.

When you’re writing a book people inevitably find out, it’s natural. Firstly it’s those you choose to tell: close friends, family, members of your writer’s group, but then word gets out. Or maybe it just slips out because you’ve been working bloody hard on the thing and can’t stand people thinking that all you’re about is your job. This is especially pertinent to those of us whose work life feels like purgatory. But anyway its out there now and people are interested, even if your explanation of the story line does your work little justice. And after a while, when you bump into these same people, it becomes natural for your book to arise as a topic of conversation.

What surprised me, being someone with pretty meagre self-belief, was how the interest shown by others was genuine and not just the kind accompanied by a barely concealed smirk. Your friends and family are happy for you, rooting for you, hoping you make something from the project you’ve begun. It’s very likely, that for you, your novel long ceased being a pipe dream and became a definite, if intangible thing unfolding before your eyes. But for others to show a similar belief in your work, that can be a very empowering indeed.

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