Festival manager Sara’s second novel was her ‘spiritual journey’

Author Sara O’Donovan was born the UK but she has been a regular visitor to West Cork since childhood. She eventually moved here full-time over 20 years ago after meeting her husband at Féile, she told Conor Power

ALTHOUGH born in England, Sara O’Donovan has known and loved West Cork since her childhood, before moving here permanently over two decades ago. 

Her debut novel Within You, Without You was recently published by Valley Press.

‘My father is the eldest of a family of 15,’ she said, ‘so we had loads of aunts and uncles and cousins that we visited over the years in West Cork … and the social life was so much better than it was in England.’

One part of the irresistible social life that Ireland offered during her formative years was the Féile music festival in Thurles and it was there that she met her husband.

‘He was from just down the road from my cousins, as it turned out, but we actually met at Féile!’ Sara recalled.

The inevitable permanent move to Ireland saw her take up a position with West Cork Music. 

She currently carries out the marketing for the Chamber Music Festival, the West Cork Literary Festival and the autumn Masters of Tradition fest, as well as managing the literary festival.

‘I wrote an historical novel in 2015 and went through the process of submitting it to various agents and publishers without success. I brought it to an editing session during the West Cork Literary Festival to get some feedback. The editor in question said “there’s nothing wrong with your novel at all. It would have got published 10 or 15 years ago.” 

According to her, all the agents and publishers were looking for psychological thrillers and she asked me if I had another idea that might suit the market better. I had had this idea for a long time for a story based on a memory I had. It came to the front of my mind then, and that’s why I started this book.’

The memory in question was when Sara had come across somebody that looked exactly like a friend of hers, who had died a year earlier. 

This had happened one day years previously, while she was driving. 

Sara’s novel took this real-life anecdote as a starting point. She based one of the main characters of the book on her friend and explored the ideas of going back in time to alter the present and the future.

In Sara’s novel Within You, Without You, protagonist Kathryn thinks that she has seen her first boyfriend Ed one stormy night, but he has been dead for 20 years.

‘Valley Press in Scarborough in Yorkshire had a submissions window of just one month. They took in 200 books and fortunately, they picked mine.

‘When you go through so much time submitting a draft for a novel and getting so many rejections, you get to the point where you think that it will never get published, so it was great to finally get joy with Valley Press.’

Despite her success, however, the process of writing the book remained for her the most enjoyable and satisfying aspect of it.

‘It was almost like a spiritual journey for me to actually write my novel … it was bringing me back to a time in my life because there were little autobiographical aspects to it as well. 

‘I was able to revisit the 90s, I was able to revisit fictionalised people who had been in my life. It was a complete indulgence, in a way. All those long nights writing it – it never felt like work.’

Sara, who lives in the countryside outside Clonakilty with her husband, two children and an impressive coterie of animals, has already begun her next novel.

She will be reading at the West Cork Literary Festival on Wednesday July 12th at 11.30am in Bantry Bookshop. Full details on www.westcorkliteraryfestival.ie or call 027 527 88.