Eileen Merriman's Blog

I’ve just finished reading Paula Green’s recently published poetry collection, ‘The Venetian Blind Poems’ in one sitting. This book was an oasis in the midst of a hectic time for me (when is life ever not?); it’s not very often I can be compelled to sit for more than half an hour currently. Yet I connected with this on so many levels: as a writer, as a doctor, as a patient, as a friend, as a human. Green details her experience on the Motutapu ward, the bone marrow transplant/haematology unit at Auckland Hospital, where she received a bone marrow transplant for a life threatening  blood disorder in June 2022.

As a haematologist, I know this is one of the most challenging treatments you can put a patient through, bringing someone to the brink of death to save a life. Recovery takes months, sometimes years. The acute phase can be akin to torture, one only the recipient could ever understand. But Paula holds us close, so that we can begin to understand: ‘I return to the pain box in Dune… I am using the box/for when my ulcerated mouth pain is unbearable/last night I held the box/as the mouth pain radiated but/I didn’t put my hand in/I decorated the box/ with seashells instead’. And then we are elevated from the abyss to the sublime, because this is how Green survives, by stacking poems along her windowsill and creating word pictures in her head: ‘Buttered toast and clover honey/marmalade brain and mandarin heart’. And then, time and time again, we are brought back to the world that Green sees, from the confines of her isolation room, peering through the Venetian blinds at the world that sustains her, one second, one minute, one day at a time.

This book had me captivated from the delicious first line ‘Liquorice strips of harbour’, throughout the rough seas, eddies, near-drownings and becalmed harbours of the stem cell transplant, and beyond, right through to that hopeful last line, ‘We will be able to see for miles’. Kia kaha, Paula Green, your inner strength knows no bounds.

The sequel to Violet Black and Black Wolf.

THE SUSPENSE-FILLED CONCLUSION TO THE BLACK SPIRAL TRILOGY

Violet and Johnno have escaped the Foundation’s compounds. Reunited, they need somewhere safe for the three of them to hide: Violet, Johnno and their unborn child.

Beat. Heartbeat. One, two, three. I only just became aware of the third today, just another complication in an impossible situation.

The Foundation is particularly keen to get its hands on the baby. Is freedom an impossible dream?

Chosen as a highlight of the WORD Christchurch 2020 Literary Festival; this aired on Radio New Zealand this afternoon. Link here to listen to the session in its entirety! Such a delight to be in the company of these two.

Eileen Merriman and Carl Shuker talk medical misadventure at Word Christchurch 2020 | RNZ

Twenty books that were a tonic in 2020 | The Spinoff

Xmas: the best novels of 2020 (newsroom.co.nz)

The Listener’s Best 101 Books for 2020 – Booksellers NZ

A Trio of Sophies has been translated into Germany, and has a new name and cover – Missing Sophie – and it was released on 24 August: Missing Sophie

The first reviews are starting to come through – I have been making good use of the Google translate function on my computer: Missing Sophie review

You can get your pre-orders in now or you can walk into your local bookstore on 1st September to purchase this novel about junior doctors, stress and a deadly addiction:

The Silence of Snow

Yesterday I was stunned and delighted to receive the news that Moonlight Sonata has been long-listed for the Acorn Fiction Prize: Ockham Book Awards 2020 Longlist

Congratulations to all other nominees!

My next YA book, A Trio of Sophies, will be released March 2020: follow the link here for details  A Trio of Sophies

This baby will be delivered at Unity Books at 6pm on July 2, 2019: all welcome! See below for details:

https://www.penguin.co.nz/events/2442-moonlight-sonata-book-launch