Deepa Anappara on great storytelling and complex explorations of grief

It’s time for another special episode where we have another coffee conversation! As ever with the coffee conversations, this is a real as it gets. Two microphones, two writers getting real about writing! And this is a book that has a bit of everything. It’s 1869. Tibet is a forbidden kingdom and closed to foreigners. Tibet is also an unwilling participant in what was called, ‘The Great Game’, a geopolitical rivalry, shall we call it, that didn’t escalate into a full-scale war, but it did see both Russia and the United Kingdom trying to expand their territories. Deepa takes us on a sweeping journey back into history as she brings to life what was at stake for those explorers who, secretly, conceitedly, and ambitiously, crossed those borders. But it's also a prescient exploration of boundaries and borders and a hymn to the complicated emotion of grief. And, as well all that, it’s an example of just really good storytelling. Deepa Anappara is here to talk to me about THE LAST OF EARTH published by Oneworld Publications. Get exclusive subscriber benefits from the Rippling Pages Patreon and become a Page Rippler! https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medi   Chapters 2.45 - Writing about the mountains  6.20 - Political dimensions of map-making 8.30 - inspiration from maps  12.15 - Characters and the captain 15.15 - Moby Dick and naming characters  21.45 - Rippling Pages Patreon  23.15 - Who is Catherine?  28.30 - Women, race, and getting into Tibet  31.15 - Guilt, death and grief  35.20 - Finding meaning in loneliness  37.30 - Deepa’s own grief  Reading List Buy all the books here!: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/july-s-reads-2026?&new-list-page=true&bkshp-astro=t Rudyard Kipling T.S.Eliot  Herman Melville - Moby Dick Alexandra David-Néel Deepa’s Books Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line - (2020, Random House) Letters to a Writer of Color: An Anthology (2023, Vintage Books) - edited by Deepa Anappara, Taymour Soomro, and Madeleine Thien