It’s been a good week for Muse. It was a pleasure to receive a thoughtful review on April 10 on the blog Ramblings of a Reader, by Maria Vigornia, with the intriguing title of “Fabula Argentea: Mary Novik’s Muse.” Also, on April 15, Caitlin Hicks, wrote a very generous review of Muse on Goodreads. Thank you, Maria and Caitlin!
As well, I’ve just made the delightful discovery that Le Journal de Quebec has dedicated a whole page (D20) in their Sunday issue, April 12, 2015, to an article about the new French translation, also called Muse, that has just been published by Éditions Hurtubise. The article is called “Destin extraordinaire d’une femme de la Renaissance,” another great title. Some weeks back, Marie-France Bornais of the Journal and I had an enjoyable hour’s conversation. The photo she used of me was taken by my husband on one of my research trips to Avignon and Provence. I’ve posted an even better one here–check out the tartine I’m about to devour!
Mary in Avignon
One of the great joys of writing a novel is witnessing translations giving it a whole new life and audience. So far as I can see, the French Muse is being presented as a serious, literary novel and it has been translated by two respected Canadian translators, Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné.
When Muse was translated into Italian, there were two translators as well. Elisabetta Colombo translated the first half of the novel and Monica Ricci translated the second half. The publisher, Newton Compton, slanted it as a sexy papal exposé called L’amante del papa–the pope’s lover!–and launched it via a darkly sensual trailer that is still receiving lots of views on YouTube. You don’t need to understand Italian to appreciate the haunting, pounding theme music. It’s here on the Muse page if you’d like to indulge in a little vicarious throbbing.