Manisha Jolie Amin was born in Kenya to Indian parents, who immigrated to Australia when she was a young girl. She grew up listening to her mother tell her mythical tales about India while her father played the Indian flute. She lives in Sydney, Australia. Dancing to the Flute (Atria, February 26, 2013) is her first novel.
On your nightstand now:
I like reading a number of books at the same time, depending on my mood, so at present I have Savour the Moment by Nora Roberts (for sweetness and light); Ragnarok: The End of the Gods by A.S. Byatt (for mythology and because I love the way she writes); The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (it takes me back to childhood, when I first discovered Anne and the other Montgomery books); and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (to expand my perceptions); as well as Remembering Aboriginal Heroes by John Ramsland and Christopher Mooney (strong book about the Aboriginal people who really made this nation and took a stand).
Favorite book when you were a child:
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers--as different from the Disney movie as processed cheese is from a good Stilton! This was the first book that made me cry. When the west wind arrived and Mary left, I didn't want this conceited, feisty magical woman to leave my world. It was then I realized the power of books and the power of the imagination.
Your top five authors:
Why limit the number? It really depends on my mood on a particular day and what I'm reading at the time. These five often come up, however: I love John Suter Linton, Jacob Ross, Jeanette Winterson, Minette Walters, Toni Morrison--and so many others.
Book you've faked reading:
I can't remember having faked reading a book. My guilty pleasure is not admitting to having read and liked particular books! I now carry my chick lit and gothic novels with pride, just as I do my literary favorites! Oh and I've faked liking a book--that's when I've met authors and really didn't want to let them know that their book didn't hold me.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Pinter Bender by Jacob Ross. It's beautiful and transports you to another world, that of Grenada. This book haunts me, as do the characters and the imagery.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. A stunning white cover with a soft matte coating. I used to walk past the book on purpose in bookshops and department stores just so I could stroke the cover! It took me a few months to buy the book as it wasn't something I'd normally read--but that cover seduced me and I can still feel the same emotions I did then when I think of it!
Book that changed your life:
There are two. The first is one I won't name, because it was so clumsily written I started to correct it in my mind while reading. That book gave me the confidence to write in the first place. Then there was Ghostwritten by David Mitchell which opened the world of fragments and connected stories to me.
Favorite line from a book:
"Don't ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn't fall in love, I rose in it." --from Jazz by Toni Morrison.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
A Charmed Life by Dianna Wynne Jones. DWJ is one of my favorite children's authors. I still read her books and I wonder if she would have made as big an impression on me if I read her first when I was an adult rather than a child.
Why did you choose India as your backdrop in Dancing to the Flute:
Because India fascinates me as an Indian who has never lived in that country for any length of time, but who keeps going back. I wanted to write about the little things that I loved and the people who saw the world through what they could do rather than what they couldn't.