Finding Fertile Ground: Stories of Grit, Resilience, and Fertile Ground

Sujata Massey: Delectable feminist mystery and historical fiction set in Japan and India

January 25, 2021 Marie Gettel-Gilmartin Season 1 Episode 32
Finding Fertile Ground: Stories of Grit, Resilience, and Fertile Ground
Sujata Massey: Delectable feminist mystery and historical fiction set in Japan and India
Show Notes

The second “Writer on Resilience” is one of my favorites, Sujata Massey. Born to an Indian father and a German mother, Sujata's family immigrated to the US when she was five. She found it difficult to make friends, experiencing prejudice and xenophobia. She was glad to put high school behind her when she started at Johns Hopkins. 

Sujata was lucky to get a job as a features reporter straight out of college. She never would have left her job if she hadn’t fallen in love with her best friend in college and moved to Japan.

After returning home, Sujata published her first Rei Shimura book, The Salaryman’s Wife. People described Sujata’s first book as “sly, sexy, and deftly done.” Rei is an English teacher in Tokyo who goes on a vacation to the Japanese Alps and finds the body of a Japanese executive’s wife in the snow. The Rei Shimura books are my favorite detective series. 

Sujata then set out to write about the colonial experience from an Indian woman’s viewpoint. “So many historical novels I’ve read about the colonial period are from a British point of view, and if any Indian characters play a role...it’s never an Indian woman.”

I remembered that her protagonist renames herself Kamala, so I asked Sujata how she felt about our new VP.

“I’m hoping Kamala Harris finds out about my books, because I think they are made for her...I imagine her going through her childhood with a lot of the things said to her that were said to me…and yet she kept on going...She seems like someone who can show us what it means to have different sides to who you are.”

Perveen Mistry Series

Next Sujata decided to combine the two things she loves. “I wanted to tell the story of feminism in India, and I thought this would be a good way to do it through the vehicle of a mystery.”

This is what I wrote after reading The Widows of Malabar Hill:

"An Oxford-educated, multilingual Parsi woman in 1921, Perveen is one of the first female lawyers in India, inspired by the real Cornelia Sorabji. Perveen's parents encourage her education and career, but they still want her to get married. The novel covers the travails of her personal life and professional work. She helps her dad with a case of a rich Muslim man who has died and left three widows behind. The women are in purdah, so Perveen is best suited to speak to them. She becomes concerned because their husband's agent plans to give away their inheritance. When she begins to investigate the situation, a murder occurs and things escalate."

All of Sujata’s characters are fully fleshed, independent women of color. I asked about her inspiration. “When I was young, it was the 1970s feminist movement. I remember knowing who Gloria Steinem was, reading Ms. Magazine. So it was very normal to think about women’s rights. If I was going to write books about women in India, I wanted to show the strength of women in India.”

Library Journal said about Sujata’s second in the series, The Satapur Moonstone: “Edgar finalist Massey’s second whodunit featuring Perveen Mistry is even better than the series’ impressive debut…The winning, self-sufficient Perveen should be able to sustain a long series.”

Her third book in the series, The Bombay Prince, will be published in June.

Interviewing an author I've admired for 20 years was a thrill! You can buy Sujata's books and other books discussed at the Finding Fertile Ground Bookshop link, which supports local bookstores.

Read more about Sujata and other Writers of Resilience.