Helena Kriel pens heartfelt ode for beloved brother

The Year of Facing Fire, a heartfelt and beautifully written memoir by award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Helena Kriel follows a time when Helena was commissioned to write the screenplay for the hit movie, Karma Sutra while at the same time, her beloved brother Evan, was diagnosed with HIV/Aids.

“Evan was always an extraordinary person. He was refined, he was cultured and he was extremely intelligent. He was full of fun, he was a little wild like all we were at that time and he made one mistake and it just totally changed the course of his life. He just took it on – he volunteered, he became very spiritual and as he got sicker he got deeper and wiser,” Kriel said.

During a conversation with MF Books Joburg publisher, Melinda Ferguson, Helena said writing and getting the book published was a challenge as she was uncertain whether the book would come to life after she was rejected by countless publishers before it landed in Melinda’s hands.

“Writing movies is hard and writing books is harder. The thing about writing books is that you leap into the void and you have no idea if anybody is going to care or publish it,” said Kriel.

Melinda said she hardly ever receives perfect manuscripts and knew that she was sitting on a gold mine the moment the book landed on her lap

“This work has got to be read and it is one the finest pieces that I’ve ever published,” Ferguson said.

Helena said it took her two years to finally complete the book and completed it due the sense of commitment she had to telling the story and keeping her brother’s legacy alive. With his legacy at the centre, the book is essentially about life and death with light-hearted moments that are weaved by what happens with Helena’s brother as well as her tenure in India while on research for Karma Sutra.

“The book has got quite a lot of different moods. Obviously the prevailing mood is the more serious mood but there’s also a lot of sort of funny and nonsense stuff that goes on in the book as well. I guess it’s because I feel very strongly about the fact that life’s never just dark, it has lots of colours, and the more serious life is the funnier and ridiculous it can be,” Kriel said.

The Year of Facing Fire brilliantly weaves together death, love and living through its depth, multi-layers and how Evan’s condition extraordinarily brings family together. The book’s deep and dark honesty establishes it as an inspirational memoir.

“You just have to persevere, that’s what you learn from everything. It’s a long road and journey and I had to keep returning to – the patience and the perseverance,” said Kriel.