Book Details:
Book Title: THE CHAI HOUSE by Priti Srivastava
Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 123 pages
Genre: Dystopian Thriller, Feminist Fiction, Horror
Publisher: Independently Published
Release date: December 8, 2020
Content Rating: R: The story takes place under fascist rule. There are descriptions of war, violence, rape, and forced birth.
The Chai House is a haunting debut novel that explores the complexity of community when individuals are unaware of their own roles in upholding systems of oppression. Swati has spent her entire life trying to live up to her family’s expectations of her. She has learned it is easiest to just do what is asked of her, without resistance; a skill that has helped her survive in the early years of the Knights, an authoritarian regime. When her mother has a request for Swati, she agrees to it as it is the only way to help her young niece have some sort of future. An emotional page turner, The Chai House examines the desire to be true to yourself in a world where familial, cultural, societal, and political values direct you to stay small and stay silent.
Priti Srivastava lives in Madison, Wisconsin with their best friends. Priti works to create inclusive spaces as they hope that one day everyone will feel as though they belong. When Priti isn’t working or doing chores, they enjoy playing video games, making their friends laugh, eating samosas, and sitting quietly. They also love to read and on the rarest of occasions Priti writes about Priti in the third person. Priti loves to connect with readers. Follow them on social media to request a virtual visit with your book club.
connect with the author: twitter ~ instagram ~ goodreads
Why Use Italics Anyways? By Priti Srivastava
Writing The Chai House my editor had a concern that my use of Hindi without italics could be a hinderance to readers. I explained to her that I would not budge on this and she completely understood. I valued her sharing her feedback with me so much and her support of my decision even more. I knew she was technically correct; for writers a best practice is to italicize ‘foreign’ words in English texts, for ease of reading. I’m so glad my editor didn’t care about being technically correct or following rules properly.
Hindi words, in my own stories or others, are not foreign to me. I grew up surrounded by Hindi and I think many Hindi speakers are very familiar with Hinglish, the blend of flow between Hindi and English. I wrote The Chai House for them. This language certainly cannot be considered foreign to the hundreds of millions of people across the globe who communicate with Hindi every single day. I am so jealous of them! My Hindi is not very good and Hinglish is the closest I get. I know that if I didn’t practice with writing I think I would lose even more of this skill.
Hindi isn’t foreign for the many Hindi speakers across the globe, it is the third most spoken language! Hindi words are a part of many people’s lives and if you can blend Hindi and English together, italicizing Hindi in text would be distracting to readers, not a kindness. I also hold faith that those who do not speak Hindi read to learn, and learning new words is often a favorite part for me when I dig into a story. The rule to use italics to help readers isn’t much of a help in my opinion. Inviting a reader to explore the different languages, cultures, practices, and yes, of course cuisines of our world is the biggest help in my humble opinion.
But most importantly, as I told my editor, when it comes to using italics, I simply just do not want to. I know that readers want to fully immerse themselves in a world with Hinglish just as I did with a world of English. Growing up I looked many words up and I didn’t even have Google translate! And of course, since I was reading English, italics were never necessary.
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