INTERNATIONAL literary success beckons for Port Fairy writer Paul Burman who has signed his first major publishing deal with British-based publisher Paperbooks.
The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore is Burman's debut novel which he described as a story of "love, loss and life" and is the first in his three-book deal with the UK publisher.
Burman, an English teacher at Brauer College, said that the novel explored the basic ideas and themes that he had written about in the past.
However, he said the characters had developed and become more detailed.
"The novel's main character, Thomas Passmore, is a man tangled in the mystery of his father's suicide, his mother's rejection and a mysterious woman, Kate," Burman said.
Born in Northamptonshire, Burman has been writing since a young age and incorporates in his writing many of the experiences of the social and economic change that he witnessed in postwar England.
Burman, who has a degree in literature from the University of Kingston-upon-Thames, was inspired as a teenager by the 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five, written by American author Kurt Vonnegut.
The novel will be launched on August 30. Burman is in the process of writing his second book.
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