Fighting Fate and Learning to Love in Witch Daughter | Interview with Author Tanaz Bhathena
Note sull'episodio
Join me and author Tanaz Bhathena to talk about her recent adult fantasy, Witch Daughter. A modern retelling of part of Ferdowsi’s epic, The Shahnameh, this book follows the princess Tahmineh and her relationship to fate. First, as she runs towards it and her marriage to Rostam, a famed warrior who she hopes can provide the protection she needs as a suspected witch. And later, after the birth of her son, as she desperately tries to avoid a prophecy where her son and his father fight each other on the battlefield.
Bhathena explores classic prejudices and patriarchy through the main character, Tahmineh, and the suspicions around her lineage. She explores what lengths a person will go to in order to secure their own safety, and then how that changes when those concerns have to include someone other than yourself. In all of her attempts to secure her safety, and then her son’s, Tahmineh also unknowingly works through the tensions she has around love, first through passion, and then through a slow burn and earned trust. Bhathena and I also discuss the research that went into writing this story. Tahmineh’s journey as a literary figure has shifted over the centuries, with suspected origins as demon or a witch, and was potentially sanitized for reader consumption. What does it mean to give this power back to her?
Buy Witch Daughter now: https://bookshop.org/a/54661/9781538780862
Learn more about Tanaz Bhathena here: https://tanazbhathena.com/
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