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ABOUT THE BOOK
A note from Damian Maximus
This is the story of my grandmother. An ordinary, extraordinary housewife. It is the story of a silent generation of women whose lives hid behind their husbands, whose lives are slowly becoming lost to us.
It is also the story of a grandson just trying to understand who the ever-blossoming woman he sees in front of him is. How many of us get to see our grandmothers as six-year-old girls running through the fields? Or as twenty-three-year-old brides-to-be?
Truth be told, this story is many things, but ultimately it is the story of what it means to be human. Unsure. Imperfect. Complete.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to listen to my grandmother tell her life story. I went and lived with her for three months and recorded our conversations as she told me all about her life. I got to see her grow up, get married, and have her first child. I got to see her as she travelled the world with her husband and a slowly growing family. I got to see the joys and pains as she journeyed through life. I got to see it all.
And then I came home and realised I had to write it.
It took a long time. Longer than I thought it would. And the journey has been full of many twists and turns. But what I present to you now is something few writers can say they have done. Because, you see, during the process of getting this book to print, I was able to connect not just with a brilliant editor and publisher, but also with several amazing artists. And I began to realise what this book could be.
Too often, writing sits apart from its fellow arts, huddled in its own corner as it types and edits away. But all art tells a story. And what if you could bring multiple artforms together to tell this story?
I give you the final product. The goal of Rosemary's Corner was to tell one story through several art forms. The main story, told through the novel itself, follows the narrator (me) as he listens to his grandmother recount her life. Through a series of flashbacks and present-day conversations, he tries to unpack the life he sees unfolding before his eyes and the growing realisation that it will soon end.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Damian Maximus wasn’t meant to become a storyteller. With a career in engineering planned, he found himself one day looking up and realising the power of a story. (I’ll save you the details, but it involved a great deal of serendipity, a kind man, and a Ugandan mountainside). Since this change of paths, he has studied journalism and social anthropology, specialising in the use of fiction as a source of truth-telling. He is the author of the short story “The Blind Ballroom Dancer” and the serialised novella “The Romance of Unconnected Lives”. His work with Boz Publishing represents a new chapter in his journey as he merges writing with other artworks to tell stories in new and exciting ways.
If you want to learn more about the man, you can find him awkwardly bumbling his way through Instagram @Damian_Maximus or on Patreon at AuthorDamianMaximus.