As It Was Written

A Novel
 by Sujatha Hampton



ISBN-13: 9780312584122
ISBN-10: 0312584121
Price: $31.00
Binding: Hardback
Pub. Date: Feb. 16, 2010
Status: AVAILABLE
Pages: 384
Category: FICTION
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Net Priced: N
Carton Quantity: 24

The epic journey of an Indian-American family which unfolds when men and women, Hindus and Catholics, histories and curses, collide

In McLean, Virginia, Dr. Raman Nair lives a life of abounding satisfaction with his tiny wife, Jaya, and his harem of enormous and beautiful daughters. He has been away from his native Kerala, India for so long that he has happily forgotten the ancient Brahmin curse that follows his family like a black cloud, killing one girl for love in every generation. But his wife hasn’t forgotten, nor has his baby sister, Gita. Suddenly his daughters are up to no good and Dr. Raman Nair doesn’t know which way to turn.

As It Was Written marks the arrival of a wonderful new voice in fiction, and a storyteller of the highest order.


About the Contributor(s)

I was raised inside a bell jar by scofflaws who left their homeland of Kerala, India to fulfill their destinies halfway around the Earth. They came in a wave of scofflaws, the great Brain Drain of India of the 1960’s. All the scofflaws’ children were born here in the States and raised in bell jars of differing proportions depending on the number of offspring. Our parents felt the encasement would keep us safe and close to home. It didn’t really work, though we rarely fell down, because we were not allowed outside, because someone might kidnap us. This is true. They told us. We watched the world through the glass, and we were allowed to play with each other. We have either great fondness or great antipathy for our own kind. This is not true. We love each other to the point of tears, the same way our parents loved us. We are like the daylilies; you have to tear us apart; we are all knotted together under the soil.

None of this tells you anything you might want to know about me. Here is some very distilled essence of me: the only thing I ever wanted to be was a novelist. I have no interest in the truth as it really is, but rather what might be the truth if only this or that were thrown into a regular day. I even blog lies. My blog is entirely made up of made up stories, because my own life is uneventful, and my own musings so much like everyone else’s musings. Except that I muse things like this: “What percentage of nuns do you think are disliked by other nuns?” This might strike someone as a researchable question. You can go into the sanctuary and take a poll. But to me it is one of those what ifs that makes an ordinary life extraordinary. I like to muse on things like that. The drama in the cloisters. You have a regular group of nuns going about their nun work, ministering to the poor and teaching class and then they go back to their nunnery and suddenly a new nun has arrived and she is gorgeous. She looks like Raquel Welch. The priest can’t keep his eyes off her. Well...women are women...I think that’s an interesting story. I’d like to write that book.

But though I always and only wanted to be a novelist, it takes guts I didn’t really have so I went a more socially acceptable, parentally acceptable route, because I was raised in a bell jar...it takes a while to stretch out. I got a college degree and then a master’s degree and then even a doctoral degree and I taught school and I joined a college faculty and taught teachers how to teach school, and then I joined a public school system and worked as an administrator. I got married, I had a boy I had a girl. I didn’t get the courage to drop everything and write a book until I had done all that. I figured by then none of the scofflaws could say I was stupid and to get an education, to get married, to have kids, in case it all fell apart. So finally I quit my day job and wrote a book, which is all I ever wanted to do. That book is AS IT WAS WRITTEN. I always say that it’s about Dr. Raman Nair and his five fat daughters and the ancient Brahmin curse that followed them from India to the States. But it is also a family saga and a love story and a story within a story. It’s a sweeping tale and I love every word. I would like to think that though I wanted to be a novelist from the time I was at least seven years old, perhaps I didn’t have anything to say till now. I like to think that all these years, I was collecting the stories I will spend the rest of my life inserting ‘what if’s’ into and writing on paper.

There are a lot of stories that come from my life and the lives of the people I know, but most of them are made up of a little bit of real and a lot of what if Raquel Welch showed up at the nun dormitory.
Multimedia

What's New

Back         Next

Bestsellers

STORM CYCLE
STORM CYCLE
Iris Johansen, Roy Johansen

Rachel Kirby is a computer genius whose personal life is falling apart. While her beloved younger sister is dying of a rare illness, Rachel is running out of time to connect the intricate pieces of   more...

SARAH’S KEY
SARAH’S KEY
Tatiana de Rosnay

A New York Timesbestseller.Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she   more...

THE ARTEMIS FOWL #7: ATLANTIS COMPLEX
THE ARTEMIS FOWL #7: ATLANTIS COMPLEX
Eoin Colfer


Artemis has committed his entire fortune to a project he believes will save the planet and its inhabitants, both human and fairy. Can it be true? Has goodness taken hold of the world’s   more...

THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, BOOK FOUR: BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH
THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, BOOK FOUR: BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH
Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson isn’t expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to   more...

VANISHED
VANISHED
Joseph Finder

The only one with any chance of finding Roger is his brother, Nick. A private spy trained in the Special Forces, Nick Heller specializes in digging up secrets that those of influence would rather   more...

THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, BOOK FIVE: LAST OLYMPIAN
THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, BOOK FIVE: LAST OLYMPIAN
Rick Riordan


All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of victory are grim. Kronos’s army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood   more...

THE BEST OF CHEF AT HOME
THE BEST OF CHEF AT HOME
Michael Smith

There’s no doubt that Chef Michael Smith is passionate about food. You’ll catch his enthusiasm just by watching his hit Food Network television shows Chef at Home and Chef Abroad. Now   more...

THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, BOOK TWO: SEA OF MONSTERS
THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, BOOK TWO: SEA OF MONSTERS
Rick Riordan


After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson finds his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his   more...

THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, BOOK THREE: TITAN’S CURSE
THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS, BOOK THREE: TITAN’S CURSE
Rick Riordan


When the goddess Artemis goes missing, she is believed to have been kidnapped. And now it’s up to Percy and his friends to find out what happened. Who is powerful enough to kidnap a   more...

THE KANE CHRONICLES, THE, BOOK ONE: RED PYRAMID
THE KANE CHRONICLES, THE, BOOK ONE: RED PYRAMID
Rick Riordan

From the creator of the hit Percy Jackson series, this new fantasy brings ancient Egyptian mythology to life in a vivid modern-day setting.

  more...

See more Best Sellers...