Featured Interview With Stef Smulders
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am a Dutchman who moved to Italy in 2008 with husband and dog to start a B&B Villa I Due Padroni (www.duepadroni.it) in the unknown but beautiful Oltrepò Pavese wine region, south of Milan. My first book tells in fact about our emigration adventures, hilarious and horrendous as these were.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Late, very late. I started a bit when I was 40 but really began once I had moved to Italy. What we experienced here just had to be written down!
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love fiction, novels as well as short stories, with psychologically developed round characters, e.g. Alice Munro, Ian McEwan, Coetzee, Chabon etc. Humor as well, but that is a difficult genre! Tim Parks’ novels about living in Italy inspired me to write my own stories.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My book is about our adventures in buying and reconstructing the house, obtaining a tax number and a bank account, registering at the commune and at the national health service, importing our car and a range of other things that lead to a myriad of bureaucratic troubles. These problems were always resolved in a truly Italian fashion, leading to raised Dutch eyebrows and hilarious scenes.
As a reader you will encounter a range of characteristic Italians, from sympathetic to villainous, from moving to shameless. Real Italians of flesh and blood, sometimes cliché, sometimes surprisingly original.
But always worth encountering.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles