Notes and Links to Sarah Thankam Mathews’ Work
For Episode 198, Pete welcomes Sarah Thankam Mathews, and the two discuss, among other topics, her early reading and writing and experience with multilingualism, contemporary and not-so contemporary writers who left an imprint on her with their visceral work and distinctive worldbuilding, “seeds and fertilizer” for her standout novel, including the vagaries of post-college life and the tragedies and communal love that came with the COVID pandemic, and perti...
Notes and Links to Sarah Thankam Mathews’ Work
For Episode 198, Pete welcomes Sarah Thankam Mathews, and the two discuss, among other topics, her early reading and writing and experience with multilingualism, contemporary and not-so contemporary writers who left an imprint on her with their visceral work and distinctive worldbuilding, “seeds and fertilizer” for her standout novel, including the vagaries of post-college life and the tragedies and communal love that came with the COVID pandemic, and pertinent themes in her book, like alienation, sexual trauma, “found family” and community building, and problematic capitalism.
Sarah Thankam Mathews grew up between Oman and India, immigrating to the US at seventeen. She is author of the novel All This Could Be Different, shortlisted for the 2022 National Book Award and the 2022 Discover Prize, nominated for the Aspen Literary Prize.
Formerly a Rona Jaffe Fellow in fiction at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and a Margins Fellow at The Asian American Writers Workshop, she has work in Best American Short Stories 2020 and other places. A proud product of public schools, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Buy All This Could Be Different
Sarah's Website
Sarah's Substack
Review of All This Could Be Different from Los Angeles Review of Books
At about 1:35, Sarah discusses her current paperback tour and what she’s heard about the book from readers and observations she has after a year of publication for All This Could Be Different
At about 4:50, Sarah gives background on her early relationship with languages, particularly Hindi, English, and Mayalalam
At about 7:30, Sarah discusses early reading that was influenced by living in what she calls a “tertiary” book market; she mentions transformational and formational books like The Bluest Eye and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things as books that left her “profoundly rearranged”
At about 10:20, Sarah shouts out Jamaica Kincaid’s Luck as a helpful companion as she wrote All This Could Be Different
At about 12:20, Sarah responds to Pete’s question about how Sarah saw her early reading in terms of representation; she points to ideas of visceral pleasure with that reading
At about 14:20, Sarah expands on ideas of pathos as a driving force at times as she wrote her book
At about 15:30, Sarah cites C Pam Zhang, Isle McElroy, Lydia Kiesling, as some of the many contemporary writers who she admires and is thrilled by
At about 17:45, Sarah coins the cool term “proprietary physics” and how Lydia Kiesling exemplifies the phrase
At about 19:15, Sarah highlights Cohen’s The Netanyahus and Homeland Elegies from Ayad Akhtar
At about 20:15, Sarah drops a haunting and amazing fact about publishing from 9/11
At about 20:40, Sarah provides seeds for the book, both in the immediate past and the thought process from the more distant past
At about 23:20, Sarah talks about Bed Stuy Strong, a mutual aid organization she started in 2020, and how the “seeds and fertilizer” for the book came from this time
At about 29:10, Pete lays out the book’s exposition and Sarah responds to why she chose to set the book in 2012 or so
At about 32:30, The two discuss the book’s pivot point, which happened before the book’s main chronology; Sarah expands on the ways in which Sarah’s relationships and ethic and view on her previous life in India come from this pivotal and traumatic event
At about 37:30, Sarah speaks to the importance of Milwaukee and its history and her knowledge of it, and why she made the setting what it was
At about 42:10, Sarah responds to Pete’s asking about Sneha’s complicated relationship with her parents
At about 46:30, Sarah talks about the “absolutely bonkers act” that leads to a misunderstanding between Marina and the smitten Sneha
At about 49:40, Sarah gives background on Sneha’s boss and how his character evolved in her various drafts
At about 51:15, The two discuss the idea of “The Pink House” and its significance
At about 54:00, Sarah discusses her book as a coming of age story and her desire to portray deep friendships and love
At about 58:40, Pete notes the success of the well-drawn flashbacks and flashforwards and fanboys over the fabulous and eminently memorable last scene and last line of the book, and Sarah describes what the “page [was] revealing to her” as the book’s ending morphed
At about 1:02:05, Sarah discuss the book as (perhaps subtly) hopeful
At about 1:03:10, Pete asks Sarah about future projects
At about 1:04:00, Sarah drops some important insights that are useful advice for young (and old) writers
At about 1:04:50, Sarah shares contact info, social media, and bookstores where to buy her book, including The Word is Change in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn
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Please tune in for Episode 199 with Jared Beloff. He is the author of Who Will Cradle Your Head and the microchap This is how we say “I love you.” He is also a peer reviewer for The Whale Road Review, and his work has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize.
The episode will air on August 15.
