From gender-based violence to the challenges of being an outspoken woman, Indian writer and activist Meena Kandasmy talks with Graeme Green.
Your second novel, When I Hit You, is about a young woman who’s the victim of domestic abuse and violence, as you were. How much of it is based on personal experience?
A lot of it is first-hand. [Domestic abuse] is so intense that going through it defines you and alters you; so, as an artist, it would be a shame not to use it for what it’s worth. But it’s not a memoir. Some parts are altered; some parts are left out.
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