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Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Speaking Tiger Books acquires

publising rites for Love The Dark Days

by

268 days ago
20240526

Speak­ing Tiger Books has ac­quired the In­di­an pub­lish­ing rights to Love the Dark Days, a mem­oir by writer and Guardian Me­dia jour­nal­ist Ira Math­ur, from Peepal Tree Press in the UK.

Speak­ing Tiger Books is an in­de­pen­dent pub­lish­ing com­pa­ny based in New Del­hi. Found­ed in Sep­tem­ber 2014, the com­pa­ny pub­lish­es a di­verse list com­pris­ing qual­i­ty fic­tion and non-fic­tion from South Asia and the rest of the world. The list in­cludes vet­er­ans and ex­cit­ing new voic­es—among them, Nayan­tara Sah­gal, Shan­ta Gokhale, Jer­ry Pin­to, Wendy Doniger, Upa­manyu Chat­ter­jee, Mark Tul­ly, Rav­ish Ku­mar, Ruskin Bond, Nan­di­ta Hak­sar, Harsh Man­der, Hans­da Sowven­dra Shekhar, Ma­mang Dai, Salma, Eas­t­er­ine Kire, Gulzar, Mad­havi Menon, Swap­na Lid­dle, De­va­ki Jain, Sel­ma Car­val­ho, and Omair Ah­mad. Its au­thors have won or been on the short­lists of al­most all ma­jor lit­er­ary prizes, in­clud­ing the Sahitya Akade­mi Award, the Cross­word Book Award, the Hin­du Lit­er­a­ture Prize, the DSC Prize, the JCB Prize, and the Tata Lit­er­a­ture Live Awards. 

Speak­ing Tiger al­so pub­lish­es books for chil­dren and young adults un­der its Talk­ing Cub im­print, with au­thors like Paro Anand, An­daleeb Wa­jid, Bul­bul Shar­ma, Ran­jit Lal, Sub­hadra Sen­gup­ta, Bi­jal Vach­hara­jani, Ashok Ra­jagopalan, and Shab­nam Min­wal­la.

Set in Trinidad and St Lu­cia, Love the Dark Days fol­lows the sto­ry of a girl, Pop­pet, born of mixed Hin­du-Mus­lim parent­age in post-in­de­pen­dence In­dia. Grow­ing up in silk-swathed splen­dour and with her grand­moth­er’s prej­u­dices of class and race, she is al­so the dark child in her fam­i­ly, a feel­ing of un­be­long­ing re­peat­ed when her fam­i­ly mi­grates to mul­ti­cul­tur­al Trinidad, meet­ing In­di­an peo­ple, sev­er­al gen­er­a­tions away from In­dia, with a very dif­fer­ent sense of them­selves. She be­gins writ­ing about her ex­pe­ri­ences to try to make sense of them. In her dark­est hour, she meets Derek Wal­cott, who en­cour­ages her to leave the past be­hind and rein­vent her­self. All this takes place in a so­ci­ety suf­fer­ing an at­tempt­ed coup by Mus­lim ex­trem­ists and a ris­ing crime rate with re­port­ed in­ci­dents of spec­tac­u­lar bru­tal­i­ty. Can Pop­pet, through her writ­ing, ex­am­ine each bro­ken shard of her shat­tered fam­i­ly re­la­tions and re­assem­ble them in­to a new shape in a new world? Can she make sense of her­self about her fam­i­ly and the Trinida­di­an fam­i­ly she mar­ries in­to and grow enough to achieve the courage it takes sim­ply to be hu­man? Raw, un­flinch­ing, but not with­out threads of hu­mour and per­ceived ab­sur­di­ty, Love the Dark Days is an in­tri­cate ta­pes­try that has Pop­pet’s sto­ry at its heart. 

Math­ur is an award-win­ning In­dia-born Trinida­di­an mul­ti­me­dia jour­nal­ist. Her mem­oir, Love the Dark Days (Peepal Tree Press, 2022), won the 2023 OCM Bo­cas Prize for Non-Fic­tion and was short­list­ed for the over­all prize. It was al­so named among the best bi­ogra­phies of 2022 by the UK Guardian. In 2021, Math­ur was longlist­ed for the Bath Nov­el Award for a draft nov­el on Ni­na Si­mone. She is Guardian Me­dia’s longest-run­ning colum­nist and jour­nal­ist and has free­lanced for the UK Guardian and the BBC. She holds de­grees in lit­er­a­ture (Trent Uni­ver­si­ty, Cana­da) and law (Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don), a mas­ter’s in in­ter­na­tion­al jour­nal­ism (City Uni­ver­si­ty, Lon­don) and a diplo­ma in cre­ative writ­ing from the Uni­ver­si­ty of East An­glia, UK Guardian. Her body of jour­nal­ism is avail­able on www.iras­room.org

 

Recog­ni­tion

 

The mem­oir has won the Caribbean’s top lit­er­ary prize, the OCM Bo­cas Non-Fic­tion Prize for Lit­er­a­ture 2022. Past win­ners in­clude No­bel Lau­re­ate Derek Wal­cott, Book­er Prize win­ner Mar­lon James, and Cos­ta Prize win­ner Monique Rof­fey.

The UK Guardian billed it among the top mem­oirs of 2022.

 

Re­views

 

“Love the Dark Days is a trou­bled and trou­bling book, a heady brew that stays with you.”–The Ob­serv­er ( UK)

 

“This brave and in­spir­ing fem­i­nist cri­tique of pa­tri­archy and gen­der op­pres­sion set in Trinidad-- framed by the delu­sion­al greed and grandeur of colo­nial In­dia and a week­end in St. Lu­cia spent with No­bel lau­re­ate Derek Wal­cott—has ter­rif­ic promise as a bit­ing movie adap­ta­tion for the #MeToo era.”–Etan Vless­ing, Hol­ly­wood Re­porter

 

“One of the most beau­ti­ful books I have read for a long time.”–Michael Por­tillo, Times Ra­dio-UK

 

“A blaze of a book, as­ton­ish­ing, colo­nial, post-colo­nial, mod­ern and post-mod­ern-a Caribbean fem­i­nist #metoo mem­oir that ex­am­ines in­her­it­ed pa­tri­ar­chal dam­age of women and so­ci­etal norms brought from the Old World to the New. This ex­quis­ite­ly writ­ten book ex­am­ines fa­mil­ial love and fate­ful blood ties while scru­ti­n­is­ing, with com­pas­sion, a flawed pa­tri­arch and Mag­nus too, Derek Wal­cott. Math­ur deft­ly yokes to­geth­er par­al­lel worlds, colo­nial In­dia and post-colo­nial Trinidad. Both worlds are dark, and both worlds hurt women. A mem­oir like this has nev­er torn it­self out of the Caribbean.”—Monique Rof­fey Win­ner of Cos­ta Book Award 2020

 

“A mov­ing post-colo­nial book about moth­ers and daugh­ters of In­dia.”–Ani­ta Rani- Women’s Hour, BBC, UK

 

“Ira Math­ur takes the read­er deep in­to the dark­est spaces of her fam­i­ly his­to­ry. Re­lent­less­ly hon­est, she tells a sto­ry of dis­pos­ses­sion, pa­tri­archy, pas­sion and the wounds of a di­vid­ed in­her­i­tance. Mov­ing from pre-In­de­pen­dence In­dia to Trinidad and Lon­don, we see the grow­ing pains of the au­thor as she de­codes her re­la­tion­ships with her glam­orous par­ents, her beau­ti­ful pi­ano-play­ing au­thor­i­ta­tive grand­moth­er and her sib­lings. In a world be­tween pover­ty and priv­i­lege, she is guid­ed by Derek Wal­cott, and Naipaul is ever-present. Ul­ti­mate­ly, she must find her own voice, truth, and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. A win­dow in­to a world rich in his­to­ry that few know about. A com­pelling read.”–Shra­bani Ba­su, au­thor of Vic­to­ria & Ab­dul

 

“I was trans­port­ed by this gem of a mem­oir, writ­ten over even years by an award-win­ning, In­di­an-born jour­nal­ist, dubbed the “Jon Snow” of Trinidad. Monique Rof­fey is spot on when she calls it a “blaze of a book.” set in her home na­tion, but al­so in St Lu­cia, In­dia, and Lon­don, it’s a mul­ti-lay­ered ac­count of a woman grow­ing to fem­i­nist ma­tu­ri­ty while grap­pling with the on­go­ing trau­mas that re­sult from her tur­bu­lent child­hood. With many mem­o­rable char­ac­ters, in­clud­ing her for­mi­da­ble grand­moth­er Bur­ri­mum­my, it al­so fea­tures No­bel Lau­re­ate Derek Wal­cott, a men­tor of her work.”–Car­o­line Sander­son, The Book­seller, UK

 

“A com­pelling mem­oir of the bind­ing pow­er of love and the lib­er­at­ing beau­ty of for­give­ness.”–Earl Lovelace, Trinida­di­an nov­el­ist and play­wright, win­ner of the Com­mon­wealth Writ­ers Prize

 

“Glo­ri­ous writ­ing full of hard-won wis­dom. A tran­scen­dent mem­oir about ex­tremes of love and hate, prince­ly wealth, and the re­bel­lious, right­eous poor. I loved it.”–Mag­gie Gee, the first fe­male chair of the Roy­al So­ci­ety of Lit­er­a­ture (RSL)

 

“The stretch from a Mughal em­pire an­ces­try to the arrange­ments be­tween the Mount­bat­ten set and the Nawab of Sa­va­nur, the treach­ery and false promis­es of a dis­man­tled em­pire are all chan­nelled through the an­noyed, dis­in­her­it­ed Bur­ri­mum­my. We see Trinidad through an ex­pe­ri­enced jour­nal­ist’s eyes, Wal­cott and Naipaul.”–Alan Ma­har, nov­el­ist and for­mer pub­lish­er

 

“What mar­vel­lous and heartrend­ing cross­roads mul­ti­plied dur­ing the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. Be­tween east, west, north, and south, many kinds of an­cient and un­told modes of mod­ern, from “man” and “woman” to vul­ner­a­ble be­ings of imag­i­na­tion and heart ... Over the years, I have wit­nessed Ira Math­ur nav­i­gat­ing an all too hu­man writer’s life; I have yearned for her to put some­thing of her beau­ty, wis­dom and pain in­to print. Here it is. Stranger and more com­pelling than any fan­ta­sy, here we are.” –Vah­ni (An­tho­ny Ezekiel) Capildeo, Fel­low of the Roy­al So­ci­ety of Lit­er­a­ture, Win­ner of the For­ward Prize 2016

  

“Love the Dark Days is an ab­sorb­ing and il­lu­mi­nat­ing work of mem­oir, which man­ages to strad­dle con­ti­nents and epochs while re­tain­ing a tight fo­cus on the vi­brant char­ac­ters who link and in­hab­it them. It is quest­ing and self-ques­tion­ing, and ad­mirably un­der­stand­ing the in­ex­tri­ca­bil­i­ty of the past and the present.”–James Scu­d­amore, nov­el­ist, win­ner of the 2007 Som­er­set Maugh­am Award, Cos­ta First Nov­el Award short­list

“One of the most pow­er­ful and ex­cit­ing new voic­es in con­tem­po­rary lit­er­a­ture. Love the Dark Days is an ex­tra­or­di­nary, mul­ti-lay­ered mem­oir, draw­ing threads from the colo­nial past in­to a mov­ing, con­tem­po­rary sto­ry of frag­ile re­la­tion­ships. Ira Math­ur is a re­al find.”–UK David Hav­i­land, pub­lish­er, ed­i­tor and writer.

 

“Born in the post-colo­nial era to a pale-skinned Mus­lim moth­er of roy­al an­tecedents and a bour­geois Hin­du fa­ther, an army man of high rank­ing, Ira is a child of re­li­gious, colour, class and geopo­lit­i­cal con­flict. She is then trans­posed in­to To­ba­go life, and lat­er on, she at­tends board­ing school in Eng­land be­fore set­tling in Trinidad as a grownup. Her es­tate is one of in­ter-gen­er­a­tional vi­o­lence, mi­cro- and macro-po­lit­i­cal ag­gres­sions, and dev­as­tat­ing pow­er plays.”–Tere­sa White, Trinidad Guardian 

 

“The tor­tur­ous In­di­an child­hood, ig­nored (at best) by two gen­er­a­tions of moth­ers car­ing more about one’s spring­board in­to so­ci­ety than one’s bored off­spring, is con­nect­ed to the chill­ing end, the con­se­quences of ac­cept­ing moth­er­hood that nei­ther one’s par­ent nor grand­par­ent risked, by the small strands of the grownup, fin­ished and ac­com­plished writer, in St Lu­cia, in the shad­ow of the No­bel lau­re­ate, Derek Wal­cott, mash­ing up his stove and his mem­o­ry and fi­nal­ly as­sert­ing her­self … if on­ly in these small links that may go un­no­ticed and un­ap­pre­ci­at­ed. In­deed, the read­er has to go back to these in­ter­ludes at the end of the sto­ry to ap­pre­ci­ate how well they work to con­nect the book in the hand of the read­er to the voice of the writer. “Re­mark­able” might be too weak a word; “en­vi­able” might be bet­ter.”–BC Pires, News­day (T&T)


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