What's the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
I wrote the first edition of my novel as a love letter to the American Experiment—after having lived in cities across three continents, and long after becoming a naturalized American citizen. I was interested in migrancy, acculturation, and identity, and felt moved to write the novel as a love story. But last year, I began to realize that the American Experiment is not a fixed promise but a continuing moral test, and felt compelled to revise the book. The second edition is more clear-eyed, as it reflects on the contemporary experience of those who have chosen America as their home.
What's your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
I read and write literary fiction, more specifically, socially engaged literary fiction. I admire writers who have used fiction to illuminate social issues, among them Nadine Gordimer, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy, and Barbara Kingsolver.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
I'm looking forward to reading Go Gentle, The Correspondent, and The Dream Hotel.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
The last chapter of the first edition and the new final chapter in the second edition were written ten years apart—the first in 2016, the second in 2026. I enjoyed writing them both, but I have to say that the new ending for my characters astonished me.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
I cannot write in public. I know writers who write in cafés, libraries, trains, writing groups, writing workshops, and other public areas. I simply cannot. Writing feels private, like prayer to me; thus, I can only write when I'm alone at a desk.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
I love the quote from Lady Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, the world's first novel. "Again and again, something in one's life, or in the life around one, will seem so important that one cannot bear for it to pass into oblivion. There must never come a time, the writer feels, when people do not know about this."
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
I'd like readers to remember that those who have chosen America as their home are no less American than they are.
