The Boston Globe has said that your “artful storytelling skills bring(s) . . . to vivid life . . . ancient history.” Do you feel called to certain time periods or characters from history? How do you choose the setting for your novels?
Actually, I don’t feel called to certain periods in history. But I do feel called by certain stories, whether they’re set in Egypt, or Rome, or India. So far in my career, each of the books I’ve written have been inspired by various trips I’ve taken. In the case of Nefertiti, it was an archaeological dig in Israel, followed by a trip to Egypt. In the case of Cleopatra’s Daughter, it was a trip to Rome. And in the case of Rebel Queen, it was my marriage and subsequent tour of India.
What news can you share with us about upcoming projects? Do you have plans for a new novel?
I do, although unlike my previous novels, this one was inspired by something more personal. The Typist is set in Paris during the Second World War and tells the story of a young woman, Edie Boutin, who’s taken from her university class at the Sorbonne and, along with a dozen other women, is told by the French police that she is to type the list of Jews who will be rounded up and deported from France. There is no refusing the police, and this act sets off a chain of events that change not only Edie’s life, but also the lives of one particular Jewish family whose address she accidentally adds to the list.
The idea for the book came to me after my son was born. Because I love the field of archaeogenetics, one of the first things my husband and I did was to order an ancestry test for him. We used the company 23andMe, and what came back not only for him, but also for me, was very surprising. It turns out that I am Jewish, and not just a little. A significant portion of my DNA showed Ashkenazi Jew. We’d never talked about this in my family. It wasn’t a secret, but it wasn’t a topic of discussion either, and no one could tell me how a Jewish boy from Germany ended up marrying a German Catholic, or why they’d chosen to raise their daughter a Catholic instead of a Jew. It started me down a path that eventually led to the Holocaust, and sadly, the concentration camps as well. At the same time that I was discovering this family history, I took a trip to Paris, and it was while I was there that I began to realize just how complicated and controversial the German takeover of Paris had been. I started visiting the sites in Paris where the Jews once lived, and where they were held prior to being deported to various concentration camps across Europe. When my trip was over, I knew it would be the basis for my next novel.
Enhance Your Book Club
1. For Sita’s father, reading the classics opened up the world to him, “a world in which he’d never know the sound of his child’s voice or hear his wife sing ragas to Lord Shiva again.” And for Sita, a woman made to observe purdah, literature had the power to take her beyond the four walls of her own home. Have your book club revisit some classic literature beloved by Sita and her father, such as Shakespeare’s Othello or The Merchant of Venice, or look for productions of these plays at your local theater. Try to imagine yourselves confined to only your home as you read or watch the play. Afterward, discuss the ways in which these texts have the ability to transform both you and the world. What lessons do these classic plays teach us that can be directly applied to our lives? To Sita’s? What is it about Shakespeare’s language that makes him sound so fresh all these years later?
2. The rani’s Dewan compares Sita to the Indian painter Nihal Chand’s ideal woman: “pale cheeks, sensuous lips, a high forehead, thin brows, and wide lotus-blossom eyes.” With your book club, study a few paintings by Chand, paying particular attention to his version of ideal beauty (the painting can be found here: www.exoticindiaart.com/product/paintings/bani-thani-portrait-of-lady-who-is-model-of-beauty-HL96/). After enjoying the artwork, have a conversation with your book club about the nature of beauty. What do you notice about the paintings? What words would you use to describe the women portrayed? Why do you think Sita says that to be compared to Chand’s Bani Thani is “as much a compliment as an insult”? Is Sita’s beauty a help or a hindrance to her? Consider how being beautiful affects the other characters in the novel. If you had to choose to be skilled or beautiful, which would you choose and why? Do you think Sita would choose her skills over her beauty?
3. Before the British formally took over the kingdom of Jhansi there was health and happiness in the rani’s palace—and a lot of food. Sita lovingly describes one meal “of steaming rice, curries made with green chilies and coriander, and vegetables cooked in heavy sauces.” Have a dinner party with your book club in which you recreate this menu. Over dinner, discuss the many examples of loss that occur in Rebel Queen. Is it difficult for the characters to mourn personal losses in the midst of public loss? Have you ever been in a similar situation? Share with the group your own story of loss.
About the Author