Author Event: Fiona Sussman

About the event
Fiona Sussman, author of Addressed to Greta, will join us in the bookshop to read from her new book. Following the reading, there will be an opportunity for discussion and a chance to have your book signed.

About the book
Greta Jellings lives a small life. No expectation, no disappointment had been her mother’s mantra. It serves Greta well now too. At 30-something years of age, she has spent her life pleasing others; working for the past 22 years in a pool-chemicals shop just one of the many compromises she’s had to make. She has embarrassingly big feet and a pet chicken named Marilyn Monroe, but who is she really? Even Greta has no idea.

So, when she receives a call from a lawyer acting on behalf of her dear friend Walter, Greta finds herself presented with a terrifying, though compelling, opportunity. Walter’s bequest, sees Greta embark on a mystery journey, each destination revealed in a letter on the eve of her departure. Addressed to Greta is a captivating novel about a woman learning how to express her true self. It is an important story about finding the courage to be seen, and a testament to the transformative power of friendship.

About the author
Growing up in a publisher’s home in South Africa meant that Fiona fell in love with language and the written word at an early age. This was during the apartheid era, and witnessing the brutal regime at work sensitised Fiona to the issues of injustice and racial prejudice – experiences which would inform much of her early writing.

After school, Fiona completed a BA in English Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand; however, the untimely death of her father from a terminal illness saw me change direction and pursue a career in medicine.

In 1989 Fiona emigrated from South Africa to New Zealand, where she completed my medical degree and went on to work as a family doctor.

While Fiona found practising medicine immensely satisfying, she still hankered after the literary world of my childhood. Finally, the call to write became too great. She hung up my stethoscope, returned to university to do a Master of Creative Writing and began to write in earnest.

Fiona lives in Auckland with her family and pet boxer dog/ loyal writing companion/ chief distractor! Her days are spent writing, speaking at events, mentoring writing students, and assisting in the management of Auckland’s charity hospital – a charitable surgical service she and her husband established to help those who have fallen between the cracks in our health system.