Blackwell’s Manchester are thrilled to welcome Dzena Andersone to hear her discuss her latest novel, Ice Flower Herbarium.

Dzena and her translator Žanete Vēvere Pasqualini will be in conversation with Fly On The Wall Press’ Isabelle Kenyon.

Doors: 6.30pm, Starts: 6.45pm

General admission is £5. A Book & Ticket option is available for £14.

About the book:

When he wakes to find a body in a sack on the roadside outside his home, police chief Vincents sets off a chain of events that threaten to overwhelm him and the sleepy, Latvian backwater town he has lived in his whole life. The secrets and hypocrisy of the townspeople of Dansile are about to be unveiled.

A reluctant and unlikely hero, Vincents grapples with his failing marriage, a domineering former police partner and an ever-growing number of strange and bewildering cases. As the body count rises and Vincents’ precariously constructed world crumbles around him, the focus of his investigations closes in inexorably on a troubled young man, Jens, whose odd behaviour can no longer be contained by his controlling Aunt Erika.

Ice, Flower, Herbarium is a haunting psychological story of inherited guilt and the consequences of raising a child without love or human touch. Will Vincents uncover the truth and find the strength to stand up to the town, or will his resolve melt away with the snow?

About the author:

Džena Andersone (1977) – lawyer, writer. Džena studied writing in the Literary Academy’s prose workshops. In 2021, her debut collection of stories “Dadži” [Thistles] was published. She participated in the festival Prose Readings various times, with the stories “Kāds pieskaras rokai” Someone Touches the Hand, “Plauksta, aizšauta acīm priekšā” Palm, Held in Front of the Eyes, “Dzeltenās podziņas” The Yellow Buttions and “Skapī” In the Closet.