‘It must be scary to be a man.’

The Booker nominee talks about drawing on the myth of the monstrous mother in her novel Girl in White Cotton

1 Were there any concerns about reconstructing and deconstructing the myths surrounding motherhood and maternal care that have been ossified in popular imagination?

I’m drawing on another kind of myth of mother, namely the monstrous mother, the shadow of motherhood that we don’t like to talk about, the one we try to disown. Motherhood is idealized in most cultures to the point where it looks nothing like what it really is. And I understand the impetus for this. The creative power of the mother, to give and destroy life, is terrifying – something that the entire species depends on. Patriarchal powers are in a constant battle against women and their bodies – a battle to control, to regulate, to dehumanize. And that makes a lot of sense. I’m sure it must be very scary to be a man. 2

A claustrophobia associated with domestic spaces permeates the novel, particularly in relation to how the female characters navigate these spaces. Was that something you had wished to bring out?

The majority of the novel is set in domestic spaces, and I was interested in how the interiority of the narrator and the interiors of homes could speak in the same voice, and essentially be in dialogue with one another. The spaces are claustrophobic because Antara feels the walls of her psyche closing in around her. The rooms are containers and mirrors for her trauma. 3

Antara is an artist working on a long term project that weaves in her personal history with her art. In what ways, would you say, your own formal education in art has made its way into the book?

I think about art a lot, about art objects and the process of making, and how artists conceive of their work. There is a mystery in how concept takes form – how does something abstract acquire its materiality in a way that is meaningful, moving and unexpected? There are the kinds of questions that I was thinking about when I tried to imagine what sort of work Antara would make. 4

Objective memory and linear progression of time, both come to be challenged through the form of your novel as much as through the story itself. Was that a conscious effort?

Yes, I was keen to construct the story in a way that would be compelling to read, and I have learned that linear storytelling mostly gets in the way of that. In terms of form, short sections and bursts of memory, as well as the white space on the page, which act as moments for reflection, for pause, for the unknown; these were important to consider because they are intrinsic to the way in which we remember the past.