LOCAL author Asa Sandberg is one of life's storytellers.

Born in Finland, she has travelled extensively, worked in television and speaks several languages.

It's a little surprising therefore to discover that she's chosen to settle in sunny Morecambe.

Looking over the vast and beautiful expanse of the bay, it's a choice she doesn't regret and Asa is more aware than most of life's paradoxes.

In fact, free choice, cause and effect and paradox are the major themes of her intriguing first book "The Storyteller."

This is no ordinary book. You're unlikely to have read anything like it before.

The Storyteller is a soul from aeons ago who's reborn in different lifetimes on different planets.

With each incarnation there's a lesson to be learned but this is no cosmic fairy tale. Some of the characters in the book come up against aspects of human nature that are difficult to deal with.

"The soul has been around in a lot of universes and been through quite a lot," explains Asa.

"It's based on three ideas I've been toying with for about four years and when I finally decided to get it all down on paper it took me just 10 days. I wrote day and night and got very frustrated that I couldn't type fast enough. I normally write in Swedish but for this I decided to write in English, which is something I've never done before. I was unsure how the book would be received because it is so different but the reaction has been surprisingly good. I'm my own biggest critic but I've read and re-read the book dozens of times and I like what I've written."

Asa was lucky that Minerva Press took her work on almost immediately and there's a suitably esoteric and intriguing cover to match its contents.

Available at Waterstones in Lancaster, "The Storyteller" is an ideas book, a tour through the gallery of life's bigger picture which will baffle some and fascinate others.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.