Jacob Shymanski

It just makes for a great setting.

And that's why I feel like it works.

But Uzma, I do have to say that...

You know, I'm a French-Canadian white guy, and to be immersed in a story set within a Southeast Asian community, albeit a fictional story, but one I know is reflective of reality, is fascinating to me, because characters engage with stuff that, honestly, I'm pretty damn clueless about.

You know, like aunties, and different parenting styles, and Southeast Asian marital customs, and

expectations, arranged marriages, the food, the fashion, the clashes between first and second generation immigrants.

And it's not like you say things like, we do these things these ways because X and Y. It's just your characters live their lives the way they do in a matter-of-fact day-to-day manner that as a reader that's not in those communities...

feels more approachable.

I might not know how a modern arranged marriage is arranged, or how someone can style their hijab with the rest of their outfit, but the Dana Life storytelling is illuminating to me because it answers the why, not just the what and the how.

And all of this is secondary to the fact that you're still telling classic romantic comedies and murder mysteries.

And I'm wondering if this cultural outreach aspect of your work is A, something you actively think about, and B, if it's something your publishers and your agent and your editors consider when you're discussing these books.

In the editing process, not just for Detective Ante, but all your books, did you ever get recommendations to explain things?

Like, what is Biryani?

know i mean that's classic english class contextualization right yeah it's you can you can surmise the meaning of certain words based on the context it's it's actually a critical part of being a good reader is being able to pick up on context clues to make sense of things that you don't understand yeah and we also have smart speakers make use of it

Anyways, you know, I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks in my life.

And more often than not, the reader is an old white guy with a soft voice.

Listening to this audiobook narrated by Deepti Gupta was...

Super different and a perfect casting, naturally, because it's someone with a Southeast Asian accent narrating a book within a Southeast Asian community.

And I think you mentioned that you do listen to audiobooks.

And so like, how important was it for you to get that representation as part of the audiobook experience, not just the print experience?