'This Is Salvaged' explores the mishaps of intimacy and communication

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Vauhini Vara started writing some of the stories in This Is Salvaged when she was still in her 20s, two decades ago. From the complicated tension between two sisters to the way one mother chooses to selectively share information with her daughter, the stories in the book focus on the way people — primarily women — can struggle to connect with one another despite their best efforts. In today's episode, Vara tells Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes how time away provided perspective on her characters, and how she uses awkward or uncomfortable situations as jumping off points for her writing.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Returning to a creative project after
0:07.1	like lots and lots of time can be weird and scary and kind of embarrassing. Like you couldn't
0:14.0	pay me to listen to some of my earliest pieces for NPR. But with time, sometimes comes a better
0:20.4	understanding of what you were trying to accomplish.
0:23.5	Author Vahini Varra's new short story collection, this is salvaged, has material going back to
0:28.9	2008, you know, when she was in her mid-20s. And she talked to here now as Deepa Fernandez
0:33.4	about how the big changes in her life since then influenced her writing.
0:38.5	That's after the break.
0:44.1	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:48.3	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:55.4	On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever
1:01.3	you get your podcasts. Vahni Vara's debut novel, The Immortal King Rao, with climate change,
1:09.0	capitalism, and genetic manipulation into a sweeping family
1:13.0	saga. The book was a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize. Her follow-up book goes in a
1:18.7	much more intimate direction. Varra's beautiful new collection of short stories takes us into
1:24.7	the lives of women and girls who often struggle to connect and communicate.
1:29.8	The book is called This Is Salvaged and Vohini Vara joins me now to talk about it.
1:35.4	Vahini, welcome.
1:36.5	Thank you for having me.
1:38.2	I'd love to start by asking you about your process of writing a book of short stories, which I have to say, compared to your
1:45.5	novel, I don't know, maybe is a tad harder? A novel seems like you follow the same characters on one
1:52.7	longer path, but you've come up with such an array of stories. All these characters are so different
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.