‘They are central but disappear’

Jeet Thayil’s new book tells the stories of 15 women from the New Testament

{ SAMRAT CHOUDHURY } AUTHOR, THE BRAIDED RIVER The biggest danger of these huge dams is that they will kill the Brahmaputra On the Books & Authors podcast at www.htsmartcast.com

1

What of the was Women? the driving force behind Names I’ve been reading the Bible since my early teens, mainly as a literary text, and I’ve always wanted to write a work of fiction that would centre on that well-known story, but in a little-known way.

2

How part of did a Syrian your relationship Christian family with faith as well as as your Jesuit schooling inform the text?

It left me extremely familiar with the foundational text, the Gospels. So once I knew what my novel was going to be about, I knew how to go about the research. I went to Jesuit schools in Bombay, Hong Kong and New York, and discovered they had certain things in common – most often a kind of gritty inclusivity. They depend upon a whole other kind of scholarship than the purely religious. There’s something about that kind of training when you’re young that pretty much informs the rest of your life. Faith for the Jesuits is intellect-based rather than a matter of blind devotion. They understand doubt, and so they encourage independent, even dangerous or radical thinking.

3

How did you settle on these 15 women?

I reread the New Testament looking for the women in the story, and I noticed how the book was informed by their absence, or by the appearance of a woman in cameo, even if she performs a crucial role, for example the widow who puts her two mites on Christ’s blanket, or the woman who is to be stoned for adultery. They are central to the story but they disappear in the space of a single stanza. I wanted to know more about them. What made them do what they did?

4

Was the structure of the novel consciously executed?

The idea of ending each chapter with the name of the woman featured in it developed about half way through, organically, but once I decided to write it that way it was entirely conscious. The backwards structure, beginning with the crucifixion and ending with the birth, was in my mind before I began.

5

There have been other works aimed at reclaiming the narratives of women in Christianity. How does this one set itself apart?

I have no idea, because I haven’t read the works you are talking about. I think you should tell me if my book sets itself apart, and if so in what way. It really isn’t my place to do that, don’t you think?

6 What are you working on next?

A novel that plays with the idea of fiction versus non-fiction, or autobiography versus invention, or journalism versus fantasy, or travel writing versus armchair journalism. I want to cause the bookstore owner a tiny bit of trouble. I want them to wonder where to place the book, and to eventually give up and put it up front near the cash counter, where I hope you will buy it on a calculated whim.