Paula Hawkins and Amanda Jayatissa highlight class inequality via mystery

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2022

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The two books in this episode are thrillers that center class as the theme of the narrative. First up is A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins that the author says, in an interview with Mary Louise Kelly, is a crime-murder-mystery in a setting where "the powerful and the powerless" are right next to each other. Next is You're Invited, authored by Amanda Jayatissa, about a wedding invite gone wrong – but, as Jayatissa shared with Ayesha Roscoe, is actually a backdrop to highlight Sri Lanka's present inequalities.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. A murder mystery is an interesting vehicle
0:07.8	to explore, sure, obviously violence, but also power, gender, and love. Today, we've got two thrillers
0:15.1	that touch on class in different ways. In a bit, we'll hear about a book that's drawing a lot of
0:19.7	comparisons to crazy rich Asians. You know, if crazy rich Asians opened with someone waking up with bruised
0:26.5	knuckles and bloody fingernails. But first, Paula Hawkins' latest book, a slow fire burning,
0:32.1	was inspired by walks she'd take in a London neighborhood where, and I'll quote her on this, you have the rich
0:38.9	and poor mashed together cheek by jowl. And she talked to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about
0:44.3	walking around there and scoping out the best place to hide a dead. In the U.S., national security
0:50.3	news can feel far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind
0:56.3	closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods. NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories
1:01.8	of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and
1:08.3	methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:12.1	The writer Paula Hawkins likes to take walks near where she lives in London, which happens to be near the region's canal where a lot of houseboats are moored.
1:23.0	As she walks, Hawkins is looking around, scouting for the perfect place to dispose of a body.
1:29.1	Well, a body does indeed turn up in London and on a houseboat in Hawkins' new summer thriller,
1:35.3	a slow fire burning.
1:36.9	You may already know her work.
1:38.0	She also wrote The Girl on the Train.
1:40.2	Paula Hawkins, welcome.
1:41.8	Hi, it's great to talk with you.
1:44.1	Allow me to hope that your hunt for the perfect spot to stash a body is pure Paula Hawkins, welcome. Hi, it's great to talk with you.
1:50.7	Allow me to hope that your hunt for the perfect spot to stash a body is purely in the service of your fiction.
	...

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