The Tainted
And just like that we're back with Series 4!
You guys may remember that we wanted to do this series specifically on writers of colour, and our first book is Cauvery Madhavan's "The Tainted"
What do the girls talk about?
Well, our goal with this series is to challenge our relationship with race and racism and we got right into it with The Tainted
Turns out we learned we have a LOT of preconceptions about what it is to be Indian. And we're now pretty sure all of them are wrong
We talk colonialism and why is it that Ireland and India aren't going for pints together, bonding over their shared British colonial past - complete with mistreatment of "uncivilised natives" and groundless massacres
We also talk about the book's thoughtful treatment of what it was like to be an Irish Protestant in the years following Irish Independance
Our sectarian brain-chips were going completely haywire
But aside from all that heavy stuff, we also talked:
Possibly the most satisfying love triangle since Final Fantasy VII
The levels of book immersion achieved with The Tainted (somewhere between "Total" and "Waking Dreamscape")
The Easter Eggiest book since Dr Seuss stopped writing
And Katie's continued dependence on sexy fanfic
It's all here (along with the triumphant return of D-Doy!) on this week's Chick Lit 4 Life - available on Anchor and anywhere you get your sexy, sexy podcasts
Visit CauveryMadhavan.com for more information on Cauvery's work and pick up your copy of The Tainted at all good booksellers
Catch the full episode
More on The Tainted:
It’s spring 1920 in the small military town of Nandagiri in southeast India. Colonel Aylmer, commander of the Royal Irish Kildare Rangers, is in charge. A distance away, decently hidden from view, lies the native part of Nandagiri with its heaving bazaar, reeking streets, and brothels. Everyone in Nandagiri knows their place and the part they were born to play–with one exception. The local Anglo-Indians, tainted by their mixed blood, belong nowhere. When news of the Black and Tans’ atrocities back in Ireland reaches the troops, even their priest cannot cool the men’s hot-headed rage. Politics vie with passion as Private Michael Flaherty pays court to Rose, Mrs. Aylmer’s Anglo-Indian maid, but mutiny brings heroism and heartbreak in equal measure. Only the arrival of Colonel Aylmer’s grandson Richard, some 60 years later, will set off the reckoning, when those who were parted will be reunited, and those who were lost will be found again.
For more on Cauvery Madhavan, visit