Tania James joins us to present her newest novel Loot, in conversation with Patrick Ryan.
You can purchase a copy of Loot here: communitybookstore.net/item/wCIDqQu6pg_ozKZ0HOzqYQ
About Loot:
“Addictively absorbing.” -The New York Times Book Review
This wildly inventive, irresistible feat of storytelling from a writer at the height of her powers is "an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel about war, displacement, emigration, and an elusive mechanical tiger" (Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait).
Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate-and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create-will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe.
Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu’s palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.
TANIA JAMES is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short story collection Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in Boston Review, Granta, Guernica, One Story, A Public Space, and The Kenyon Review. She lives in Washington, D.C.
PATRICK RYAN is the author of the novel BUCKEYE (forthcoming from Random House in 2024). He is the author of the acclaimed short story collection The Dream Life of Astronauts, as well as the novel-in-stories Send Me and three novels for young adults. His work has been included in the Best American Short Stories, Tin House, Crazyhorse, Tales of Two Cities, and elsewhere. The former associate editor of Granta, he is editor-in-chief of both One Story and One Teen Story.