The return of a potentially holy river in the Indian mountains - is it a sign of a new age, a divine intervention, or simply the workings of nature? These are the questions at the heart of Gurnaik Johal’s novel, SARASWATI, published by Serpent’s Tail. Frauds, politicians, mystics, writers, and the family who own the farm in which the river exists, are caught up in trying to determine what the return of the SARASWATI river means. It is a novel that is truly global in its scope, set in Canada, India, the Chagos Islands, and Wolverhampton. It was named as a Guardian newspaper selection for 2025, and shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. Gurnaik was a winner of the Galley Beggar short story prize.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop all books are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
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Rippling Points
1.55 - what is the SARASWATI?
3.35 - the family connection
6.45 - river symbolism
8.20 - characters in the novel
10.30 - family dynasties and novels
11.55- reclamation
14.45 - rippling pages bookshop
15.30 - border conflicts
18.40 - human connection between
21 - romance in the novel
23.20 - the chagos islands
27.50 - how people communicate
29.30 - from short stories to novels
31.15 - being faithful to reality
34.35 - more advice for writers
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36:39
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36:39
Yan Ge Part 2 on Vulnerabilities, Younger Selves, Parents
“I think when you’re young you really allow yourself to be stupid.”
Welcome to part 2 of my conversation with Yan Ge.
Yan Ge is here to discuss her life and writing. She was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province People’s Republic of China. Emerging as a prodigious writer in Chinese and Sichuanese, she was named as one of China’s twenty future literary masters by People Magazine. In 2012, she was chosen as Best New Writer by the Prestigious Chinese Literature Media Prize. For English language readers, Nicky Harman first translated her novella, White Horse, for Hope Road publishing in 2014, a story about young girls negotiating adolescence in the presence of a mysterious white horse. Then, four years later, Nicky translated The Chilli Bean Paste Clan in 2018, published by Balestier. Elsewhere arrived in 2023 (Faber), and Yan Ge treated us to a new dimension of her work entirely: short fiction and, for the first time, written in English.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
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Rippling Points
Chapters
- 3.30 - writing parts of ourselves that are distinct
- 7.35 - SBoC taking off
- 10.05 - identifying vulnerabilities
- 12.15 -all consuming spells of writing
- 16.45 - finding balance
- 20.15 - inspired by a younger self
- 24.40 - The Chilli Bean Paste Clan
- 27.35 - food in Yan ges work
- 31.35 - Yan’s parents
- 35.02 - Another Liam!
Reference Points
Nicky Harman
Jeremy Tiang
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36:41
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36:41
Yan Ge Part 1 on Happiness, Elsewhere, and Striving
”If I enter a project knowing what I’m going to do, confidently, I wouldn’t do it.”
It’s Women in Translation Month!
Yan Ge is here to discuss her life and writing. She was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province People’s Republic of China. Emerging as a prodigious writer in Chinese and Sichuanese, she was named as one of China’s twenty future literary masters by People Magazine. In 2012, she was chosen as Best New Writer by the Prestigious Chinese Literature Media Prize. For English language readers, Nicky Harman first translated her novella, White Horse, for Hope Road publishing in 2014, a story about young girls negotiating adolescence in the presence of a mysterious white horse. Then, four years later, Nicky translated The Chilli Bean Paste Clan in 2018, published by Balestier. Elsewhere arrived in 2023 (Faber), and Yan Ge treated us to a new dimension of her work entirely: short fiction and, for the first time, written in English.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Reference Points
George Saunders
Rippling Points
Chapters
02.30 - connected by Leeds
4.20 - Drifting from the Chinese language
5.45 - Writing elsewhere in English
09.20 - Transforming the process
10:50 - A new relationship with language
14:05 - Linguistic and cultural experiences of the characters
16:47- Happiness
19:24 - Contentment and striving
21:00 - Rippling Pages Bookshop
23:41 - Making writing hard and easy
28:26 - Having belief
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34:03
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34:03
Kimberly Campanello - Bonus Content with memory, flags and music
“She starts having an experience to see her own life as a more shifting sands that isn’t to be fear but in fact to be enjoyed.”
Kimberly Campanello is here to talk about her novel, USE THE WORDS YOU HAVE (Somesuch Editions). It’s a sweltering summer in Bretagne, France. K, an American exchange student, is navigating more than just unfamiliar streets. She’s finding a new language. This is bonus content from the previous episode.
In this bonus content, I’ve asked Kimberly to provide me with some objects that Kimberly associated with writing the book, USE THE WORDS YOU HAVE. It’s an interesting and new way to think about influence, and a way to understand both the book and the writer a bit more.
We talk about a flag, a musician, Alan Stivell, and something called a ‘Fest Noz’, all of them relating to the culture of Brittany where the novel is set.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Rippling Points
1.54 - Proust and Memory
04.01 - Objects of influence
06.21 - Fest Noz
07.01 - Alan Stivell
08.29 - The Brittany Flag, the Blanche Ermine
Reference Point
Jonathan Culler
Arthur Rimbaud
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12:47
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12:47
Kimberly Campanello on Autofiction, the Midwest, and Notebooks
“How do you sound like you know what you’re doing when you don’t have the words”
Kimberly Campanello is here to talk about her novel, USE THE WORDS YOU HAVE (Somesuch Editions). It’s a sweltering summer in Bretagne, France. K, an American exchange student, is navigating more than just unfamiliar streets. She’s finding a new language.
Kimberly’s work moves between forms, genres, and histories. She’s the author of MOTHERBABYHOME (zimZALLA), a harrowing and formally innovative response to Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes, is held in the national poetry special collections across the U.K and Ireland. Her poetry has appeared in publications like Granta, The White Review, and The Poetry Review, and essays in Tolka. And, this year, her poetry collection, AN INTERESTING DETAIL was released by Bloomsbury.
Remember, if you buy from Rippling Pages Bookshop on bookshop.org.uk are all sourced from indie bookshops! https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/ripplingpagespod
Support the Rippling Pages on a new Patreon
https://patreon.com/RipplingPagesPod?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Interested in hosting your own podcast? Follow this link and find out how:
https://www.podbean.com/ripplingpages
Rippling Points
01:30 - Motherbabyhome
02:07 - From motherbabyhome to Use the words you have
05:38 - What is the novel about
08:02 - Sounding like you know what you’re doing when you don’t
09:51 - Differences poetry and the novel
11:46 - Who is K
14:16 - Belief and reading
15:58 - Making sense through Rimbaud
16:28 - Life in the Midwest
20:03 - Rippling Pages Bookshop
21:05 - K in Paris
22:16 - K’s notebook
25:37 - Wonky translations
29:19 - Kimberly’s notebooks.
Reference Points
Hart Crane
Dante
Marguerite Duras
Annie Ernaux
Tony Harrison
Marcel Proust
Arthur Rimbaud
Nathalie Sarraute
Bruce Omar Yates review https://thelondonmagazine.org/review-use-the-words-you-have-by-kimberly-campanello/
New Zealand