iris literary agency

Gdoup! The Secret Diary of Lina I s the story of a 9-year old girl told through her diary entries. She’s 9 years and 39 days old. She counts the days and not the months because days go by faster.

What makes the story so special and powerful is the girl’s rather wry take on life. She doesn’t believe adults when they tell her things, always trying to get around the constant

dos and don’ts her life is riddled with. ‘I hate it when people ask me how I’m doing at school. It’s the stupidest thing to ask. No, the stupidest thing to ask is if I’m a good girl.

The Divine Book of Ungodly Recipes, How To Bake Your Own God was published in 2005 by Periplous Publishers. It is a tongue-in-cheek book on faith, or lack thereof.

It reads like a cookbook, containing 18 recipes on how to bake your own God. The first sixteen Gods cater to more specific needs (e.g. finding true love, losing weight, getting appliances to stop malfunctioning, coping with stress, getting laid, dealing with dilemmas, etc.) The last two gods are more sombrely written, and talk about how to cope with the adversities of life. There is also a snacks addendum containing minor saints – all humorous.

The novel centers around the life of 9-year-old Astarte and her parents. What made them a

family? What will keep them together, when forces bigger than themselves threaten to tear them apart?

Everything begins when Astarte gets abducted by child-traffickers. Her parents respond differently to the crisis. They hire private detectives to assist the police in their search for their daughter. Her father comes up with a desperate plan to infiltrate the world of child trafficking and find his daughter that way. Her mother spirals into drug-induced apathy.