We are so excited about Shamim Sharif’s new book! The author, scriptwriter and director is best known for The World Unseen and I Can’t Think Straight, both novels-turne-films that brought LGBT issues to a mainstream audience. Despite The Falling Snow is a new departure: it tells the story of Alexander, an old man living in Boston, whose past life as a member of the political elite in Cold War Russia caused the death of his wife Katya. Like Sharif’s previous work, the story explores the joys and perils of falling in love in oppressive political climates. True to form, she has already adapted Snow for the screen. The film is released nationwide on 22 April. In the meantime, get your hands on the novel. Here’s an extract to whet your appetite…
Rebecca Ferguson stars in the film of Despite The Falling Snow, out 22 April
Lauren has an image of her own mind as a canvas, spattered with wildly coloured paints, colours that are random, without any coherence, colours that are bleeding into each other, forming a coagulated mass that is confusion and uncertainty. This bewilderment has been with her since she began having doubts about her work. But now, the re-visiting of Katya’s story is also seeping into the mess. She has not previously had any doubts about looking for Misha and going to meet him – she has been more and more convinced that the loose ends, the unknown parts, of Katya’s story should be found. How can partial information be a good thing, when the full story is potentially available? How can ignorance be better than knowledge? But the distress she is causing her uncle is causing her to reconsider.