Nikita Lalwani, author of Gifted, and winner of The Desmond Elliot Prize is my last and final interview of the weekend. I’m looking forward to it, naturally. Lalwani is amiable and approachable without being intimidating. I like that about her, she is definitely a natural and appears confident without having any air of arrogance about …
A closer reading of Corner Shop with Roopa Farooki
Firstly I have to ask, what made you throw the lovely Zaki into a river, and run away for good? For much of the novel I thought Zaki would be the one to bring everyone together – were you tempted to go down that road? Or did you always know the fate of his character? …
The perfect ten: In the hot seat with Nasreen Akhtar
1) In your quest for love did you ever think that it was going to be such an emotional rollercoaster? Never could I have imagined it to be so. The depth of human emotion is amazing! 2) Did you write the book as you went along, or did you write it later? In its entirety, …
The Making of a Marriage Bureau – Farahad Zama
Could you give our readers a flavour of the story? ‘The Marriage Bureau For Rich People’ is set in Vizag, my home town in South India. It has two major stories intertwined in it – a retired couple, Mr and Mrs Ali, who have opened the marriage bureau and the young girl, Aruna, who joins …
An afternoon with Preeta Samarasan
I meet with Preeta Samarasan, it’s my first interview of the day and its obvious that I’m nervous but Preeta is so friendly she quickly puts me at ease. We talk about her book The Evening Is a Whole Day – and I apologise to her for not having read it yet! (Maybe I shouldn’t …
On meeting Tahmima Anam
I meet with Tahmima Anam minutes after she has given a reading – we have only ten minutes – so I quickly rush through the questions. I’m struck at how petite she is, there is an elegant poise about her. Without warning we are interrupted by a passer by. We both apologise, even though none …
A Pleasure to Meet Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi was born in Madras to a Welsh mother and a Gujarati father, and is based in India, after periods living in America and England. Her first book of poems, Countries of the Body won the 2006 Forward prize for best first collection. She was the winner of the 2006 All-India Poetry Competition, and …
The Road from Damascus
ROBBIN YASSIN-KASSAB the road from Damascus published by Penguin June 2008 It is summer 2001 and Sami Traifi has escaped his fraying marriage and minimal job prospects to Damascus. In search of his roots and himself, he insteads find a forgotten uncle in a gloomy back room, and an ugly secret about his beloved father… …
The End of the road? Surely not! The Asian Writer talks exclusively to Robbin Yassin-Kassab
Q. Could you tell me more about your writing journey…how did the idea for The road from Damascus come about? What lead you to write this story? A. Well, I just started writing. For many years I’d failed to write because I couldn’t find a story. What I didn’t know was that the story is …
Ambition brings Sukhraj success
1) What made you enter the competition? Talk me through the day you found out about the competition and what your thoughts were? The Easter holiday was extremely rainy; excellent motivation to do some writing. I entered the competition just to test my nerve. I sent it off, and thought that was an achievement in …