Shanthi Sekaran Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Author Shanthi Sekaran discusses her novel Lucky Boy and what moved her to shed light on the immigrant experiences across the socio-economic divide.

What inspired you to write this novel and what is the significance of its title?

In 2011, I heard a story on NPR about a Guatemalan mother who was fighting to get her child back from the American couple adopting him. I sat riveted for the few minutes that the story ran, but of course, it left many questions unanswered. Afterward, I couldn't get the story out of my head. I wanted to get inside it and know the thoughts and motivations of everyone involved. I'm a fiction writer, not an investigative journalist, and the best way I know to get inside a story is to write it. The book that resulted takes a very different path from the initial news item, but writing it helped explore some of those early questions. Lucky Boy was perhaps the tenth version of the novel's title. The initial impulse is to see it as an ironic title, but I don't see it that way. I see it as a true statement. Ignacio is a lucky boy. He is wanted and loved.

Lucky Boy focuses on the very different immigrant experiences of two mothers. What made you decide to write about immigration?

I've always written about immigration of one sort or another. Even my mystical, fantastical stories have immigrant figures in them. The first novel I...