SELVISI

(Paperback)

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Description

With the tense pace of a political thrillerinterspersed with moments of pure comedy,and a wide array of characters and locations,this science-fiction novel has all the elementsof a riveting read.

Reviews

Wilma Giordano Laryn has already demonstrated to be a natural storyteller who can see and write things for what they are. In this new work she demonstrates that she can see and write things for what they could be, as precisely and persuasively. Selvisi is a wonder-whopper of imagination and intrigue, a double-decker of power and possibility. And as it is often the case, imagined realities can become too close to our real world for comfort This is one of my favourite passages:

Stasio asked, cheekily, Are you telling me that, when the starships left Earth, only good, average people remained

Juhani smirked, Certainly not! If you had met the former president of Selvisi, Denis Truft, you would not suggest such a thing! What Im saying is that Selvisi has had such a complex history, with so many great moments and so many collapses, that it has developed the kind of collective conscience that Oors lacks.

Oh no does this sound familiar Can we take such truth Can we trust the seer and the seen Can we accept fiction for fact and wonder for will Will a collective conscience really save us from ourselves Can hope and history as the Irish poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney wrote really rhyme

I have read Selvisi and I have answers to all these questions. Your turn to read it now, and come up with answers if you will

Marco Sonzogni, Te Herenga-Waka- Victoria

University of Wellington

Author Bio

Wilma spent the first half of her life in Italy. Her school education started with Grammar School and ended with a Maths degree. She worked in the private sector then moved to teaching Maths at High Schools, while also participating in feminist theatre.

With her husband, she spent a few years in Japan. After a short interlude in Italy, where their only daughter was born, they moved to Christchurch, New Zealand in 1996. There, they started a vineyard and winery business.

In addition to working as the Marketing Manager for the family wine business, Wilma taught Italian for Musicians at Canterbury University, as well as Italian language and cooking at evening classes. Her voluntary work included radio, a TV cooking series, coaching the opera chorus, and the Dante Alighieri Society, where she initiated the Christchurch Language School.

In 2018 the couple retired to Auckland, where Wilma published her first book: Tales from the Woods Edge a memoir in 2022.

In 2023, she published Riding a Horse made of Clouds, a collection of short stories and selected poems by her late father, translated into English.

Wilma received a civil knighthood, the Star of the Italian Solidarity from the Italian Government for her work as a journalist and teacher. She also received a gold medal from the Dante Alighieri headquarters.