Southasia Review of Books podcast #06: Vajra Chandrasekera

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan, assistant editor at Himal Southasian, speaks to the Colombo-based author Vajra Chandrasekera about his debut novel 'The Saint of Bright Doors' (July 2023) and his second and most recent novel, 'Rakesfall' (June 2024). In The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra paints a vivid picture of a city on the brink – tracing Fetter’s path from child assassin, raised to kill his saintly father to misguided adult with the ability to see devils, anti-gods and magical traces of their world – like the mysterious bright doors. In blending the mundane and fantastical with violence of colonialism, religious control, and the struggles against these systems – the book captures the complex of the power structures that shape us. But one lifetime is not enough to tell some stories. Rakesfall is a complex portrait of death and reincarnations. This cross-genre science fiction epic, following two souls as they reincarnate and echo across alternative realities, the mythic past to modern Sri Lanka, its long drawn civil war, to a far-future Earth abandoned by humanity. We see how those in power consolidate their hold on society, even to the point of strangling it again and again. It’s about the rise and fall of empires. How every attempt to make imperial power last forever fails and is always vulnerable to rebellion. At its core, The Saint of Bright Doors and Rakesfall explore the connectedness of struggles for liberation and how they reoccur in different contexts of oppression. The Saint of Bright Doors has won the Locus, Nebula, and Crawford awards and is a finalist for the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Vajra’s nonfiction, poetry and over 50 short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Analog, Black Static, Clarkesworld, The Los Angeles Times, among others. He has worked as an editor for Strange Horizons and Afterlives: The Year’s Best Death Stories, and as a judge for the Dream Foundry Writing Contest and the Salam Award. This episode is now available on Soundcloud: Spotify: Apple Podcasts: Youtube: youtu.be/VXuSQtHRDZk