The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Kirkus Review’s bottom line says it all – “A blisteringly beautiful book.”
Two sisters, eleven-year-old Viji and her younger sister, Rukku, escape from their abusive father and attempt to survive in the big chaotic city of Chennai, India. The kindness of a teashop “aunty” helps them fill their empty stomachs. The street wisdom and friendship of two boys, Muthu and Arul, become their guides and companions. An abandoned bridge becomes their home. Scavenging garbage is soon their new livelihood. But all is temporary. All is easily lost.
THE BRIDGE HOME is available this week. A double delight is that the audio version is also available and the reader is Padma herself! The following is an excerpt from her interview about her experience of reading rather than writing.
From the online Bookology magazine: “Bridging the Gap Between My Writing and Reading Selves: an Author’s Experience of Recording an Audiobook.”
https://www.bookologymagazine.com/article/bridging_the_gap/
A mixture of triumph and trepidation filled me, as I entered the recording studio, about a week later. It wasn’t really any different from a booth at a radio station, as far as I could tell. And it was far less forbidding than a TV set. Yet my hands were trembling as I got into “the saddle” and put on my headphones.
For the next two days—two whole days—I read and re-read and read. A director supervised my work and he was brilliant.
His words of wisdom: “If you get tired, if your mind starts wandering, take a short break and then come right back and attack it with all your energy and concentration. Don’t give me a half-assed performance. Read like you mean every word. An author—in this case you—spent years working on it. And I always tell my actors, I don’t care how they feel, they owe it to the author to give it everything they’ve got. You owe it to yourself.”
Or, I thought, I owed it to my characters. I loved the four characters in The Bridge Home. They are real to me, now, and I want the best for them. I want them to be loved. I want their story to be loved.
I encourage you to read the entire interview, here at https://www.bookologymagazine.com/article/bridging_the_gap/
Padma Venkatraman is not only an award-winning author but also a scientist. As an oceanographer, she has conducted research both above the ocean ship-side and also under the sea. Her novels, The Bridge Home, A Time to Dance, Island’s End, and Climbing the Stairs, are each unique but all are amazing award winners. The Bridge Home, her newest book, is available this month. padmavenkatraman.com
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