Literary Love Letters: Dear Marian Keyes, From Rowan Coleman

Have you ever been so inspired by an author’s work that you wish you could tell them exactly how much they have impacted your life? In our new series, Literary Love Letters, we will be doing just that – sharing open love letters to inspiring authors. Today, The Memory Book author Rowan Coleman writes to Marian Keyes.

Dear Marian Keyes,

I’m very honoured to be writing a literary love letter for Novelicious, and I thought long and hard about who to write it to. Which writer in particular, I wondered, has had such a deep impact on me, my aspirations to become a writer, and whose work stays with me for such a long time? I thought about Charlotte Bronte, I thought about Nick Hornby or Helen Fielding, JoJo Moyes or Julie Cohen and then I thought about you.

Reading your books has always inspired me to try harder as a writer, to try – even though I might fail – to push myself to get close to everything that you seem to achieve so effortlessly with your novels. Funny, warm-hearted stories, with characters that leap off the page and live and breathe. And stories that are never afraid to visit dark places. I so admire how you take your characters and readers into the shadows and touch on the difficult aspects of life that resonate so deeply with all of us. Life is a series of triumphs and tragedies, mostly played out behind closed doors, and to be able to read about someone going through something you yourself are experiencing is incredibly powerful and important.

The first book I ever read of yours was Sushi for Beginners, and it was a revelation. This wonderful novel showed me so much, not just how to write a novel, but how to write the kind of novel that I really wanted to write. Everything about it, from the meaningful title to the complex characters, and the strong emotional storylines swept me away, and off of my feet. And I have been a devoted reader ever since. I truly believe you are the master, the mistress, the queen of writing – not women’s fiction, not chick-lit, not rom-coms or any other genre that a person could care to think of – but simply incredible, amazing, wonderful fiction that speak to the heart.

So, dear Marian, I want to thank you for years of incredible reading that you have given, not just me, but all of us. And I look forward to many, many more.

With all best wishes,

Rowan Coleman

Who would you like to write a literary love letter to?