Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Readalikes
Bem Le Hunte is half Indian, half English and an Australian by choice. Her first novel, The Seduction of Silence, is the story of five generations of an Indian family, set in the Himalayas and London. Her second novel, There, Where the Pepper Grows is a story about a group of refugees who escape Nazi persecution in Poland, to arrive in Calcutta during the war.
Both novels have gone on to become international number 1 bestsellers and been published to great critical acclaim. She is currently completing a third novel and film script titled Father of all Stories. Bem Le Hunte is also completing a doctoral thesis on creativity and the sacred at Sydney University.
Bem Le Hunte's website
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How do you compare yourself to other writers writing about the India experience?
I don't. I feel as if my writing has more Latin American influences, if
anything. I love so much of the writing that is coming through writers of
Indian descent, but I feel I am a product of my own experience, which is not
geographically expressed. I don't intend to write only about India in the
future. Neither did I ever intend my book to be some kind of an ethnic
experience. Actually, it isn't a typically Indian story, and I don't write in
an Indian voice. Nonetheless, India is a huge inspiration for me. When I'm
there I'm saturated with the color, smell and personality of the land and I
feel as if absolutely anything could happen. India is truly the country of the
unexpected, and from a writer's point of view, it is rich with possibilities.
Also, the spirituality of the people has always touched me, although Indians
nowadays like to believe that they are not a spiritual nation, but an
industrial superpower!
How would you describe the experience of writing?
It's a feeling of being connected, on a deep level, to a part of your self
that is fully based in ...
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