Local author -and occasional contributor to this blog – Britt Arenander has had her new book published.
In Lux Divina Britt tells the story of Martina, a shy and oversensitive 38-year-old writer. When offered the opportunity to escape from wintry Stockholm she goes to finish a novel at a foundation for writers on a Spanish Mediterranean island, where she encounters a mystical order, Lux Divina, said to have been founded in the third century AD.
According to the legend, the Sisters and Brothers of the Divine Light will always, sooner or later, meet in one of their reincarnations. No sooner has Martina been admitted by her contemporary Sisters and Brothers than she ends up in a cruise liner heading for Alexandria, Egypt, where the passengers are going to attend an international Lux Divina conference. On board the cruiser, Lady M, she immediately feels attracted to Paul a Canadian lawyer, and against her will she falls helplessly in love.
During the cruise a number of discussions are held about important contemporary issues; at the outset Martina feels ignorant, but gradually she begins to find her inner strength, as well as a strong feeling of belonging. The end of the journey hits her hard, before she realises that it is far from finished…
“… The character of Martina is interesting and engaging, and her internal struggle is well-portrayed and emphatic. – A charming story, well told with a great energy.” (From appraisal of Melrose Books)
Britt, originally from Stockholm, Sweden, has lived in the Almería region for the last sixteen years. She got the idea for Lux Divina when staying for a month as a guest at the Fundación Valparaíso, Mojácar, a year before moving to Spain.
“Spain is a marvellously interesting and stimulating country”, she says. “I owe the idea for Lux Divina to Spain. I love the Spanish vitality and the way the Spanish people live intensely in the present.”