Zoya Patel

Hello.

Thanks so much for having me.

It's funny that you ask that question because basically everything on the front cover of my book other than the title I didn't actually write so the first time I saw the book described that way was when I got a printed proof but I guess without me realizing the entire book is very much about not feeling as if I fit in and primarily that's to do with being a migrant and

kind of the early experiences of trying to figure out my identity in Australia as someone who's not white.

But also my kind of cultural background is even more complicated because I was born in Fiji, but we're Indian, which means that there's kind of two steps of not belonging just within that.

And then we moved to Australia when I was very young.

So I guess that's where the subtitle comes from.

Not mine.

And I worry that it's not very inviting.

But at the same time, maybe I'll just attract all the misfits, which is also fine.

Yeah, definitely.

I didn't realise how complicated the situation in Fiji is until I got a lot older and started trying to understand why when we go to India, we're not really considered Indian.

But then, of course, in Fiji, our presence in Fiji is a result of colonisation and colonial rule, which brought Indians over from Gujarat primarily to be indentured labourers in Fiji.

And then we kind of rocked up in Australia in the 90s just before Pauline Hanson had her first go around.

And then when I was 10, September 11 happened and my family's Muslim.

So there were a lot of kind of pivotal global events happening that very much reinforced my sense of not belonging because suddenly, you know, my identity became more of a political object than I was necessarily ready to understand.

And that's a lot of what I grapple with in the book.

I actually don't think it would have been possible to write the book if it hadn't been for other Australian writers of color paving the way before me, because I think we're told again and again that those kinds of stories of minority lives aren't interesting to a mainstream audience and aren't likely to be picked up by a commercial publisher.

But luckily for me, I had writers like Benjamin Law, his book, The Family Law.

obviously does a really great job of talking about that experience of growing up as a migrant in a much more light and funny way than mine, unfortunately.