I found many more old books published in India at the Ames Library of South Asia within the University of Minnesota.Īll the Parsi cultural details came through the kind assistance of Parsis and Iranis living both in India and abroad. I also got a picture of life within progressive, academically ambitious and socially-concerned Parsi Christian family through Opening Doors: The Untold Story of Cornelia Sorabji, by Cornelia’s nephew, Richard Sorabji. These books chronicled the lifestyle for a young woman lawyer working both with Indian clients and the British Civil Service. I was especially helped by two of Cornelia Sorabji’s memoirs titled India Calling and India Recalled. What kinds of sources were you pulling from? Juliet: You obviously did an incredible amount of research in order to create this immersive and richly textured historical setting.
Perveen’s commitment to social justice leads her to yearn for independence, yet she knows her family’s fortune was built on their relationship as building contractors for the British. This set up a challenge when the Indian nationalist movement heated up. If they could afford it, they sent their children to England for education. Many wealthy Parsis enjoyed British clothing and furniture and music. Her close ties to England-her education at Oxford and her friendship with Englishwoman Alice Hobson-Jones-would also have been natural. In the old days, it was typical for Parsi women who separated from their husbands to go back to live with their parents, as Perveen does. Not only did I have Cornelia’s caseload to serve as inspiration, I realized that the regulations governing Parsi marriage and divorce could affect a female lawyer character’s life. When I decided to write a legal mystery series set in 1920s India, I found the saved article and disappeared down a rabbit hole. I printed out an article I saw on the Internet about India’s first woman lawyer, Cornelia Sorabji.
I’ve learned you never know what you might need someday. Sujata Massey: When I was working on an earlier India historical novel ( The Sleeping Dictionary), I collected everything I could find about the people and places of late British colonial India. Juliet Grames: Tell us about where the character of Perveen Mistry came from. Sujata and her editor, Juliet Grames, sit down to discuss some of the background stories and research that went into the book.Īlso know that there is a gift available to all those who pre-order the book early. Set in 1920s Bombay and featuring an inspiring female sleuth named Perveen Mistry, who happens to be India’s only female lawyer, Sujata Massey’s exciting new mystery, The Widows of Malabar Hill, doesn’t debut until January but we’re already more than a little excited about it.
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