Cork writer gears up to launch her first children's book

A Cork woman who spent many of her school lunch breaks browsing the shelves of her local book shop, says it’s a dream come true to be launching her own book there later this month.

Susan Cahill will launch her first children’s book, The World Below the Rain, in Kerr’s Bookshop, in her home town of Clonakilty, on Saturday, October 26.

The launch is part of Irish Book Week which celebrates Irish authors and illustrators, publishers, and Irish interest books, as well as the many brilliant bookshops that sell them.

London-based Susan said she has “always been obsessed with stories”.

“When it was time to choose a course in university, I knew I had to study English. And I loved university so much that I just stayed there! I did a Masters and then a PhD and then became an Associate Professor.

“I got a job in Montreal, Canada, where I lived for nine years, teaching Irish literature in the snow. But all the while there was a little voice in my head which whispered that I had my own stories to tell.

“And that voice got louder and louder until I couldn’t ignore it,” she said.

The idea for The World Below The Rain was born while she was at an academic conference – a dull one!

“When I was a child (and still) my favourite books were ones that began in our world and then the characters found a doorway into another world. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a classic example of this. I loved that book so much and I would actually trace the maps of Narnia and keep them with me in case I managed to get there and so would know where I needed to go.

“I was at an academic conference one year (which I was finding a little boring) and I was daydreaming (an excellent pastime for a writer). 

An image popped into my head of two girls in a wardrobe trying to get to another world and I was intrigued. Who were they? Would they get there? There’s a story here.

“But I thought, I can’t use a wardrobe, what else could I use as a portal? And because one of the most reliable things in Ireland is the rain, I thought, what if the other world could be glimpsed between the raindrops. And then I was away!” said Susan, who is mum to a four-year-old boy.

The book is aimed at readers aged 10-plus and is about 13-year-old Marina, who lives in a small town in West Cork.

“When we meet her, it’s the first anniversary of her father’s death and she’s staring out her bedroom window, daydreaming, when she notices that the rain is behaving strangely – there seem to be extra gaps between the raindrops, glimpses, perhaps, of another world. But before she can investigate, her sister Seri interrupts saying that their mother is in a deep sleep and won’t wake up.

This sleeping sickness seems to be affecting the whole town, and maybe beyond. Stranger still, a grandmother who they’ve never met turns up and whisks them away to her house across the bay.

“That night, Marina accidentally slips between the raindrops into a watery world full of forgotten gods and strange creatures where something beneath the water is threatening everything. The question is, can Marina find her way back home and wake everyone up before it’s too late?” says Susan.

Her advice to parents who would want to get their kids reading is to let them gravitate to whatever book they choose.

“If your 11-year-old still wants to read picture books, let them – I mean, those are some of the most sophisticated narratives out there! If your child is interested in what they’re reading and they’re allowed to choose for themselves, they will develop a love of reading for pleasure.

I think it’s also really important for your kid to see you reading too. If you model it for them as a fun pastime, they will likely follow.

“I also always think of the brilliant poster, Rights Of The Reader by Daniel Pennac, illustrated by Quentin Blake, which includes the right to not finish a book and the right to read anything.

“Check it out if you don’t know it – it’s so good.”

Susan is already working on two more books.

“One is a children’s book, again inspired by the landscape of West Cork, specifically the wedge tomb just off the road to Rosscarbery. I’m also writing a book for grown-ups about music and nostalgia and the way it can shape your life (and my abiding love of grunge!)”

Susan gets back to West Cork and her family there as often as she can.

“I really miss the sea and the countryside now I live in London. I do go back there all the time though with my four-year-old son so he’ll have a strong association with the place,” she said.

And having her book launch in her home town is “so special”.

The landscape of West Cork, the sea and the rain are huge inspirations to me, so it’s wonderful to be launching the book in the place that shaped the story the most.

“I spent so much time browsing the shelves of Kerr’s bookshop on my lunchbreaks at school. I used to dream of seeing my book on the bookshelves there so now it’s an absolute dream come true.”