"I hate stories with a message”

Lella Costa is one of Festivaletteratura’s fixtures. She was there when the festival took its first steps, and she wants everyone to know she is planning on still being there thirty years on. The audience's warm welcome will linger throughout the whole conversation with Helen Oyemi.

Lella Costa is clearly a fan: their conversation is a downright declaration of love, where the Italian actress and writer constantly remarks how talented Oyeyemi is.

Helen Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria, grew up in London, and now lives in Prague, where A New New Me is set. She published her first book when she was 19 years old, and now, at 40, she is on her seventh novel and has conquered the hearts of readers worldwide, moving from fairytale retellings to noir, always looking for cross-pollination between genres and themes.

What is this one about? “I wish I knew myself," she answers. She claims it is “one week in the life of an ordinary woman,” but Kinga’s life is anything but ordinary. It is, at least partially, a detective story, but even that definition is reductive. Any definition would be, Costa adds.

Their conversation touches on Oyeyemi’s writing process, on the novel’s themes and structure, creating a puzzle punctuated by Costa’s charming readings.

“It is very difficult to find the right voice to read you.”

“It’s always just about what a character is willing to say to me.” She relates to characters as with a group of friends who talk to her for as long as they want to, but are also ready to flee when they get tired.

Lella Costa portrays Oyeyemi as a magical creature whose writing flows like water, not only in the reading but also in the composition process. To Oyeyemi’s surprise, she cites Virginia Woolf’s Orlando as a possible model, for its capability to piece together fragments creating a “wonderful portrait of a lifetime, one we can never make peace with”.

For Oyeyemi, Calvino is an all-time favourite, especially with his Six Memos for the Next Millennium. That's the book she turns to when seeking models for her own writing. She aims for lightness. And in Lella Costa’s eyes, she achieves it effortlessly.

Her conclusion is sweet and humble, spoken with the truest of smiles: “I have always wanted to be a writer. It will be fun to try and become a ‘real’ one."