Tishani Doshi

The one book that I think was remarkable is this book called Agathe, written by Marlene van Nykerk.

And I remember listening to Toni Morrison in conversation with her about that book.

And I had gone to listen to Toni Morrison, but Toni Morrison was talking to her about this book because it's set in South Africa.

And it's about a woman who has lost the ability to speak and can only communicate with

You know, her eyelids.

And she's been cared for by this woman called Agathe, who is the sort of house help and maid.

And it's so chillingly written, the idea of the tension between them.

the difficulties of their relationship.

And at the same time, this is the only person who is caring for this lady at this stage in her life.

So she's thinking back.

So it has to do with memory, which I'm very interested in as a writer, and about her marriage, her children.

But of course, it's a larger story about South Africa and about apartheid and, you know, about race relations and this relationship between two women and how they are brought together and how it's almost uncomfortable, but in a way how it redeems.

It's just a remarkable book.

So India is an amazingly beautiful country, but one of the things that I find very, very difficult about living there is that there is such a almost disregard for human life at some level.

And because of my particular experience with my brother and having sort of been in and out of places like this throughout my life, I've really seen...

the kind of abandonment, the kind of invisibility that is around any kind of disability.

And it's heartbreaking.

It is really heartbreaking.

At the same time, if you consider, you know, the social structures that are offered to people,

It's pitiable.