INTERVIEW WITH THALASSA ALI
Thalassa Ali was interviewed in June, 2004, by Diane Franklin, a fellow Harvard alumna, who has conducted numerous interviews as part of her work.
What is The Paradise Trilogy about?
It’s about the clash of two cultures and one young woman's discovery of something beautiful and elusive among all the violence and lies. It takes place in mid-nineteenth century India and Afghanistan, at a time when the British tried to take political control of Central Asia.
What made you write it?
I wanted to see if I could tell a fast-paced adventure story that also had elements of mystical allegory. I wanted to write accurate history, but also to describe the wise and powerful mystics of Islam who are responsible, among other things, for some of the world’s most beautiful poetry. I also wanted to describe a time and place of religious tolerance.
Tell me a little bit about your background.
I was born in Boston. My parents were both archaeologists. Islam and its culture have fascinated me since I was a child. After finishing Harvard, I married a Pakistani and went to live in Pakistan where most of The Paradise Trilogy is set. Although I returned to the U.S. over thirty years ago, following my husband’s death, my ties to Pakistan are still very strong. I go there every other year.
Was your family upset when you went to live in Pakistan?
Being archaeologists, my parents had seen a lot of the world. My English mother had married my father and come, sight unseen, to the US in 1935, so she couldn’t complain about me. She always said she was only sorry I was going so far away. After all, in those days, you couldn’t even telephone. You had to send letters or cablegrams.
You are a Muslim, right?
Yes, I am. I embraced Islam in 1984, almost ten years after I left Pakistan.
Did anything particular in your background prepare you to be a writer?
When I began A Singular Hostage, I was a stockbroker who had never written anything longer than a college paper, but I had no fears about embarking on this project, because my mother had become a writer and a TV personality fairly late in life, and with no previous experience.
Given that trilogy set in India in the mid-nineteenth century, what made you confident that you’d be able to make story compelling to your readers?
The British Library contains a huge historical archive that is available to anyone who wants to read it. My connection to different layers of Pakistani society has made it easy for me to write about the 'natives,' has did my practice of Islam. Also, my English grandmother was a true Victorian, born in 1871, so I knew something about the conflicts of Victorian life.
Fortunately for me, I knew from the beginning how I wanted to tell Mariana’s story.
Do you see parallels between the events you wrote about in the novel and things that are happening today?
Certainly the British plan to invade Afghanistan for political purposes has its parallels in today’s world, particularly with regard to Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Paradise Trilogy seems to tell two tales: one of historical adventure and one of a mystical meaning, with visions and mysterious events. Has your understanding of Sufism influenced your writing?
I have enough knowledge of the Sufi Path to write these books, which, as you say, are a combination of a Western-style story and a Sufi allegory. My experience with a spiritual teacher gave me a perspective from which to write. I believe that anyone who discusses spiritual matters should have a thorough understanding of them. Mysticism is not magic, after all, although people often think it is.
But we are not strangers to Islamic mysticism. Many Westerners read the poetry of Rumi, a Sufi poet. Also, many of the old stories we think of as fairy tales have their origin in the Middle East, and many of the ones we know are actually Sufi allegories.
Can you give me an example of a story?
Take for instance one that begins with the young prince who goes out hunting with his older brothers and meets a beggar on the road. The brothers kick the beggar aside, but the young prince does him a kindness—gives him his food or something. The beggar then gives the prince a magical sword or a cloak that makes him invisible and sends him on a journey or a quest. That journey is a metaphor for the Sufis’ following of the path that leads to God.
A Singular Hostage was your first novel. Could you talk a little bit about the process of writing a first book?
Writing it took me four years with lots of interruptions, but that’s not surprising since most first novels take a while to write. Otherwise, I can only say that I began at the beginning and just kept writing. I didn’t outline it, but there was a point—two-thirds of the way through—where I had to write the end and work toward it.
Tell me about A Beggar at the Gate.
A Beggar at the Gate tells the next part of Mariana’s story. Like A Singular Hostage, it is set in the old walled city of Lahore, in what is now Pakistan. In it, she faces grave physical danger and makes a difficult choice.
And the third book, The Companions of Paradise?
All I can say is that I’m writing it now, and that it will tell the end of Mariana’s story.
Once this trilogy is finished, do you have plans for further writing, or will this trilogy be the extent of your writing career?
I can’t possibly think beyond this trilogy right now!