Tasha Suri Author of Empire of Sand – Talk Sh*t & Read #1

In the first episode of I Talk Shit & Read, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tasha Suri about her debut novel Empire of Sand. What started out as a convo about the inspiration behind her story turned into a chat about everything from the Mughal Empire (think Taj Mahal), recognizing her own history in her writing, owning her voice, colonialism, a short geography lesson, my thoughts on the themes and relatability of her world and characters, the difficulty of fan-casting a movie when colorism is truly a thing, and why we definitely need to build a compound for supervillains.

Guest: Tasha Suri

Tasha Suri is a London-based librarian and author. Suri is witty, well-informed and hooked on good things like Bollywood films, history, and mythology. Her South Asian influenced fantasy is a blend of knowledge, heritage, and a damn good idea.

Book Synopsis: Empire of Sand is set in a world inspired by medieval India. It's the tale of a girl named Mehr, the illegitimate daughter of a powerful