![]() ![]() It’s dangerous, and it’s not real power… And finger-magic always leaves a trace, and always comes with a price. ![]() Chompa has always known she can perform magic, and cannot understand why her mother will only allow her to write charms, rather than using the potent ‘finger-magic’, which is stronger: “You mustn’t, Chompa. Her novel begins in Bengal in 1855, where our young heroine Chompa – “clumsy, fidgety, short of temper” – lives in an isolated village in which the other children (correctly) suspect her and her mother Ammi of being witches. As she has explained, she started writing her debut novel, City of Stolen Magic, 10 years ago after the birth of her son, because “there were no stories out there that represented his Indian and Bangladeshi heritage, the relationship between colonialism and migration, or South Asian traditions of magic.” Nazneen Ahmed Pathak, a British-Bangladeshi writer chosen for Penguin’s mentoring scheme for under-represented writers, wants to redress that balance. ![]() ![]() Children’s fantasy may be one of publishing’s fastest-growing genres, but stories from South Asia have remained in short supply. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |