She tells me that, rather than telling the migrant story, she wanted to write about the experience of working class Australians. I asked Favel how much research she did for this novel, and whether or not it was difficult to write about the migrant experience.įavel says that instead of research she worked from her memories of her time in the flat with her grandparents. But when he called back, he told her he’d been crying for a week, and that’s when she knew the story was okay. “He was the first reader,” she says, telling me she was absolutely terrified of his reaction. He would tell her the stories of his childhood, and by doing so was able to be with his grandparents again. Favel says these conversations were a beautiful experience. He gave her the confidence to write write this story. She spoke to him nearly every day, asking questions on everything from the price of soft-drink to what he ate for lunch. What made the task easier, however, was being able to speak regularly with her cousin, who had grown up in communist Prague. Harder, Favel tells me, because she felt an extreme responsibility to her grandparents to tell their story, a tale in which she didn’t have all the details of their history, only tiny stories past through her family. This is a story deeply rooted in Favel’s family history, which prompted the question, did this make it easier or harder to write? It is a tale of memory, family, and the enduring power of love. Arianne was lucky enough to speak with her about her latest novel, There Was Still Love, set between Prague and Australia. Favel Parrett, the award winning author of Past The Shallows and When The Night Comes, is a writer of astonishingly moving stories in rare, evocative prose.

There was still love favel parrett