BY THE BOOK: Regina  Timothy

Regina  Timothy lives in a picturesque village in Kenya where she enjoys amazing landscapes, exotic wildlife and beautiful sunsets and sunrises. PHOTO| COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Timothy’s contemporary fiction novel, Full Circle is available on Amazon and Goodreads.
  • The book follows the life of Samia-al-Sayyid, an Iraq immigrant living in the USA with her son and the relationships she creates with two women-her employer and her best friend.

Regina  Timothy lives in a picturesque village in Kenya where she enjoys amazing landscapes, exotic wildlife and beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

She started blogging by chance in 2010 and this rekindled her love for writing and storytelling. When not writing, she enjoys watching classical movies, going to the theatre and auto shows.

Timothy’s contemporary fiction novel, Full Circle, is available on Amazon and Goodreads. The book follows the life of Samia-al-Sayyid, an Iraq immigrant living in the USA with her son and the relationships she creates with two women-her employer and her best friend.

When a terrorist attack destroys those relationships, she feels responsible and is forced to flee back to Iraq where eminent death awaits her.

Regina spoke to www.nation.co.ke about her book and literature in general.

Tell me the three books that excited you the most in 2017?

Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout. The book is a collection of  short stories  that explore the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others. Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo is a novel set in Nigeria about marriage and family.

Lastly, there is  Know Your Place by Nathan Connolly . It is a collection of essays written by working class citizens who talk about their experience of being working class in the UK.

Which two books do you hold so dear that they can’t possibly be lent out?

The first book is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I have read this book several times. The second book I love is The River and the Source by Margaret Ogola. I love Akoko’s strength and how she adapts and evolves with the times for the well being of her offspring.

Your fauvorite childhood books? Why?

I got exposed to reading when I was rather young. At the time, most books I could get my hands on apart from the Bible were books by African writers, a few of which were high school set books like The River and The Source by Margaret Ogola, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, The River Between and Weep not Child by Ngugi wa Thiong’o . These books were set in Africa and examine the transition from pre-colonial society to the post-colonial society and the challenges the characters face trying to adapt in the new world.

If you were to dine with three writers dead/alive, who would they be and why?

Just three? That makes it hard. I have multiple answers for it, but for now I’ll settle on the following. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Maya Angelou, Khaled Hosseini and Toni Morrison. It is because I love their books, period. Whether they are talking about feminism, racial discrimination, social injustices, religion, terrorism, the books they write tell beautiful stories that are both inspiring and emotional and I’d like to meet them and ask them what they consider t be their inspiration for such wonderful stories.

Most unforgettable character from a book? Why?

Robert Kiyosaki in his 1997 book Rich Dad Poor Dad. He put forth arguments that were both simple and practical and held so much truth.

If you were sent off to Robben Island for a year, which three books would you take with you?

I would take three books that I’ve been dying to read for a while. Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish, What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons, and A Woman’s Body is a Country by Dami Ajayi. I have a huge TR pile that I need to clear soon and these are on top of it. They were all published in 2017 and have been receiving great reviews.

Do you think book festivals, literary prizes and writing workshops are important to a writer’s growth?

Yes they do. The craft of writing is an ongoing process that requires a writer to grow and evolve if he is to remain relevant.

Writing workshops provides an important platform for writer to share their work, encourage and critique each other in a bid to improve their works.

Book festivals and literary prizes give writers an avenue to interact with other writer and readers, discover what’s new in the market, and celebrate the accomplishments of the literary world.

Tell me about the last book that made you cry?

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The book follows sixteen-year-old Starr Carter, a young woman who witnesses the shooting of her unarmed friend Khalil by the police. This is one story that tells the social and political injustice many people face each day. It makes you cry and makes you mad.

***

BY THE BOOK is a literary series that covers authors, bloggers, actors, academics and poets of note in the African continent. For comments or inquiries, e-mail: [email protected]