The Hummingbirds
Redemption, dark secrets, and trafficked lives intertwine in a dangerous dance.
The Nile Books
Netherlands, Amsterdam, 2015
‘… and cut!’
The director leaned back in his chair as the script supervisor made the last notes and closed the script. The DOP* stepped back from the camera and murmured a short prayer. They all gathered to watch the recordings of that day on the small monitor. The actor didn’t bother. He lit a cigarette and stared into the distance. The last day of shooting was intense.
Everybody felt the pressure caused by the fact that they were way over the budget. The actor rubbed his eyes wearily and blew out his breath. The shooting has finished; he could finally quit his role and let the hangover-the dry, burning nausea—consume him.
Around them, on the big city’s outskirts, storm clouds were appearing, and shadows were growing between the houses.
At the wrap party, a nurse sat beside the actor, attempting to control his self-destructive actions. He was still needed for the press tour in 6 months. Eventually, he left. His hotel room was trashed, so he ended up in a bar near the famous Milky Way. They kicked him out. He could barely walk. The water of the canal was dirty and cold. He miraculously managed to climb out.
Standing there, wet, he decided to stay in that city.
More books by
Kata Kiss
Fingerprints
Kata Kiss
These stories are about mothers and fathers, lovers and goblins, sons and daughters. Meet Angel, Mary, Billy, Martha and George. These characters are set free in a fantasy world.
You have to break up with Jay, leave Annabel, bring home Daniel and love Evie.
On the train or a plane, in a laundromat or in a courthouse, there are magic potions, a statue, a missing gun, the dodo and the grumpy goblin.
Have conversations with strange working girls, with drunk film makers, or even with your consciousness.
These stories from somewhere, these fingerprints of the author, will leave you with compassion, love and laughter.
Snippets
Kata Kiss
This book was written in a time when we did things differently.
Everybody had a new story. We lived in fairy tales, our streets had their own stories and families learnt to understand each other better. When you can’t go to faraway places, you look around our own streets. Most of these stories seems to have the same backdrop. A city with rain, noises from the background and dark silhouettes behind the curtains. Streets with people and stories. In a dream.
The colours, the tastes, the sounds, and the views of nature got new meaning, new reflections, and new adventures started with no finishing line in view.
Kata’s processing of one language into another gives the stories a kind of stillness, it’s melancholy seems to come from a European heart.