Rags-to-Riches: The Café Route

Where: London, UK

December 10, 2008 :Question: Name an impoverished British woman writer who wrote her first novel in sitting in cafes with her child, and went on to become a billionaire bestselling writer? J.K. Rowling, the writer of the Harry Potter series, comes to mind at once. Well, now there’s more.

Marina Fiorato, new bestselling writer, says she was inspired by J.K.Rowling to write her book in cafes, according to a news item in Forbes.com. The author, her husband and little son lived in a small one-bedroom apartment. She would sit in the café for hours at a time, writing and nursing a coffee. The method seems to have worked, all right.

Her novel, The Glassblower of Murano, has been translated into 14 languages, and the writer is about to sign a Hollywood deal. The book sold 40,000 copies in the U.K., and 150,000 copies in Germany.

Ms.Fiorato doesn’t like comparisons suggesting she is in the same league as the hugely successful Rowling. “We both have babies and we wrote in cafes,” she told Forbes.com.

J.K. Rowling was back in the news last week with the release of her new book – The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a book which helped Hermione, Harry and Ron to uncover the secret of the Deathly Hallows in the last novel in the series.

227 words | 2 minutes
Readability: Grade 5 (10-11 year old children)
Based on Flesch–Kincaid readability scores

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