Want to read The Widows of Malabar Hill? Comment below for a chance to win one of two copies. Winners will be drawn at random on Friday, December 21 at noon. U.S. and Canada only.
What is the title of your newest book? How many books have you published?
My current release is The Widows of Malabar Hill. It’s my fourteenth work of fiction, but I’ve been
writing for 21 years, so I don’t quite write a book every year. Widows is my most successful book to date—it’s a novel set in 1921 Bombay, where the city’s first woman solicitor, Perveen Mistry, is in practice with her father. Perveen goes to advise the three widows of a deceased client who live in a beautiful estate in the city’s poshest neighborhood, Malabar Hill. However, the simple meeting to discuss their rights turns to murder.
How did you develop your character and choose your location?
I love to write about India, which is the country where my father was born in the waning days of British rule. I have been all over India and decided to set the story in Mumbai (Bombay at the time of my book). Many beautiful old buildings are still in use, so it’s great for research, but most importantly, this is a place an area where modern ideas took hold, and women had the freedom to study and work in the early 20th century. To answer the question about my protagonist, while researching women’s lives in British India, I found an article explaining that the very first woman lawyer in the whole British empire was an Indian woman, Cornelia Sorabji. Cornelia practiced from the late 1880s through the 1920s. I was amazed by her perseverance in an area where most men refused to accept her. Fortunately, Cornelia wrote memoirs that give me a realistic idea about the kind of family law cases that Perveen might handle.
What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening?
A good writing day for me begins after I’ve taken care of my two dogs and my son has gone off to school. That’s about 7:30 a.m. and I try to work on my book in progress until 10, at which point I take a necessary exercise break, either yoga or aquatics. I might write more after lunch, but I frequently use that time to catch up on on errands as well as necessary emails. A significant portion of time is spent on blogging, media interviews, and editing, and I prefer to do that in the afternoon. I actually have maps of the locations in the front of my books, and that involves quite a lot of drafting and back and forth work with a cartographer. Creative details make books special.
Do you model your character after yourself or any one you know?
The fictional Perveen Mistry has obvious similarities to Cornelia Sorabji, India’s first woman lawyer, and Mithan Tata Lam, who was the second Indian woman lawyer. All three ladies are in the Maharashtra region of India, went away to Oxford to study, have supportive parents, and a passion to improve women’s lives. I never practiced law, so I had a lot of heavy lifting to do to learn how Perveen would look at a contract, and how a courtroom scene unfolds. But it was really fun to learn.
If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character?
Actually, The Widows of Malabar Hill is being read by producers and studio executives right now. Rather than point to a particular actor, I’d like to take suggestions that come out of these talks. Fortunately there are so many talented actors in India and the rest of the world, that I’m sure someone great will be found. My hope is to have a smart web TV series with a similar feeling to the Australian series, Miss Fisher’s Mysteries, but I am open to a feature film as well.
Who is your favorite author?
I don’t have a single favorite writer, but I love the short stories by the late Sadat Hassan Manto, and I adored the mysteries of another deceased writer, Josephine Tey.
If you could invite five people – living or dead – to a dinner party, who would they be?
How did you develop your character and choose your location?
I love to write about India, which is the country where my father was born in the waning days of British rule. I have been all over India and decided to set the story in Mumbai (Bombay at the time of my book). Many beautiful old buildings are still in use, so it’s great for research, but most importantly, this is a place an area where modern ideas took hold, and women had the freedom to study and work in the early 20th century. To answer the question about my protagonist, while researching women’s lives in British India, I found an article explaining that the very first woman lawyer in the whole British empire was an Indian woman, Cornelia Sorabji. Cornelia practiced from the late 1880s through the 1920s. I was amazed by her perseverance in an area where most men refused to accept her. Fortunately, Cornelia wrote memoirs that give me a realistic idea about the kind of family law cases that Perveen might handle. What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening?
A good writing day for me begins after I’ve taken care of my two dogs and my son has gone off to school. That’s about 7:30 a.m. and I try to work on my book in progress until 10, at which point I take a necessary exercise break, either yoga or aquatics. I might write more after lunch, but I frequently use that time to catch up on on errands as well as necessary emails. A significant portion of time is spent on blogging, media interviews, and editing, and I prefer to do that in the afternoon. I actually have maps of the locations in the front of my books, and that involves quite a lot of drafting and back and forth work with a cartographer. Creative details make books special.
Do you model your character after yourself or any one you know?
The fictional Perveen Mistry has obvious similarities to Cornelia Sorabji, India’s first woman lawyer, and Mithan Tata Lam, who was the second Indian woman lawyer. All three ladies are in the Maharashtra region of India, went away to Oxford to study, have supportive parents, and a passion to improve women’s lives. I never practiced law, so I had a lot of heavy lifting to do to learn how Perveen would look at a contract, and how a courtroom scene unfolds. But it was really fun to learn.
If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character?
Actually, The Widows of Malabar Hill is being read by producers and studio executives right now. Rather than point to a particular actor, I’d like to take suggestions that come out of these talks. Fortunately there are so many talented actors in India and the rest of the world, that I’m sure someone great will be found. My hope is to have a smart web TV series with a similar feeling to the Australian series, Miss Fisher’s Mysteries, but I am open to a feature film as well.
Who is your favorite author?
I don’t have a single favorite writer, but I love the short stories by the late Sadat Hassan Manto, and I adored the mysteries of another deceased writer, Josephine Tey.
If you could invite five people – living or dead – to a dinner party, who would they be?
Five people to a dinner party: I'd avoid inviting professional writers because I wouldn’t want shop talk. Instead I’d go for accomplished people who also have a sense of humor and true love of humanity. I’d lead off with Barack and Michelle Obama; place Rachel Maddow near my husband (of course he’s got to be there!) and have Malala Yufsazai closest to my chair. I would serve Indian food, because I’m pretty sure they all like it.
If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?
If I didn’t already have the wonderful blessing of this career, I would get a thrill out of being a book editor discovering unpublished writers. If I couldn’t get a job doing that, I might go to library school and become the lady behind the desk who helps you find things. I also have a fantasy of opening an independent bookstore in Honolulu Chinatown! The important thing for me is to be surrounded by books.
For a review of The Widows of Malabar Hill, click here.
Purchase link: The Widows of Malabar Hill
If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?
If I didn’t already have the wonderful blessing of this career, I would get a thrill out of being a book editor discovering unpublished writers. If I couldn’t get a job doing that, I might go to library school and become the lady behind the desk who helps you find things. I also have a fantasy of opening an independent bookstore in Honolulu Chinatown! The important thing for me is to be surrounded by books.
For a review of The Widows of Malabar Hill, click here.
Purchase link: The Widows of Malabar Hill
3 comments:
This sounds like an interesting read
Clemmie.Jackson@yahoo.com
I've really enjoyed Sujata Massey's Rei Shimura books and would love the opportunity to win a copy of The Widows of Malabar Hill. I love reading books set in India and this book sounds wonderful!
That would be a fun dinner party. Thanks for the giveaway!
turtle6422 at gmail dot com
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