Sally Sontheimer and Niala Maharaj met in Rome in the
late 1980s as young women full of ambition to change things in the world.
Niala was editor of an international women’s magazine; Sally worked
for a non-governmental organisation addressing the problems of women in developing
countries.
‘We both published non-fiction books to raise awareness about injustices
in the world. But we weren’t satisfied. When we went to Tuscany on week-ends,
its wide-open vistas filled us with the desire to write about what was before
us, and within us.’
Niala began writing short stories set on the Caribbean island where she had
grown up, Trinidad. One night in Tuscany, her dreams coalesced into a novel
that came to be called Like Heaven. She sent the first draft to an editor
at Random House – she had no agent. It was snapped up for publication
in July 2006.
‘Nearly 20 years have passed since we first began going to Villa
Madreselva. We’ve learned that changing the world involves changing
ourselves. That’s hard. But we’re damned if we going to leave
this earth without trying, here, to create something like heaven.’
