A.T. Balsara is the author of the young adult novel The Great & the Small, now available in a new edition. Her other books include Greenbeard the Pirate Pig. Also an illustrator, she lives in Ontario, Canada.
Q: What inspired you to write The Great & the Small, and how did you create your characters Ananda and Fin?
A: Thank you for having me on your blog! The Great & the Small was inspired by two pivotal moments in my life.
The book’s first edition, published in 2017, explores themes of good and evil through the parallel stories of Fin, the favored nephew of the charismatic “Beloved Chairman” of a rat colony, and Ananda, a troubled teenage girl.
My initial inspiration, or rather, the need to write this story, came from a visit to the Dachau concentration camp museum at age 10. It was profoundly unsettling. I saw the depths to which humanity can descend when we divide people into “Us” and “Them.”
But as my family and I walked to the end of the camp, past the rows of concrete blocks where the barracks had once stood, there was a small chapel.
Inside, a priest, who had been facing the altar, whirled around. He strode to us, arms outstretched, a smile of pure love wreathing his face. The air around him shimmered with light, as if every atom radiated with the brilliance of a million suns. His love drove back the camp’s soul-numbing evil and despair.
The contrast of light and darkness made me realize that even when all seems lost, there is always hope.
The book's creation also reflects my personal journey with buried trauma. At 5, I was molested by a trusted member of my grandparents’ church, who convinced me I was to blame. I buried the memory deep within me, but it seeped through the cracks and wreaked havoc in my life.
As an adult, I worked hard to reconnect with myself and heal. Writing both the first, and then second edition of the book mirrored my own journey toward wholeness.
In the first edition, Fin is lead henchman in a plague war against the “ugly two-legs.” When he is rescued by Ananda, a teenage girl, and secretly nursed back to health, he realizes to his horror, that he loves her. The veils of “otherness” have fallen. Now Fin must choose—continue the war, and kill every two-leg, including the one he loves, or forge a new path.
When I was offered the opportunity to revise the book for a second edition, I deepened Ananda’s character by integrating aspects of my own experience of buried trauma.
Her journey through the darkness, of not knowing who she truly is, struggling to stay alive against the ever-present backdrop of suicide, is ultimately a story of resilience and hope—just as the light in the chapel looked all the brighter against the evil of the death camp.
Both Fin and Ananda are composites of my own experiences and imagination. Their journey back to themselves, to their true selves, mirror each other and intertwine.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: Initially I had called the book Plague Rat, but the story I wrote called for something more nuanced. “All creatures great and small” is an excerpt from one of my favourite hymns and in the context of this story, it speaks to these questions: Who is truly great? Who is small? Our culture often elevates the wrong people and ignores the real heroes.
Q: As you've noted, this is a revised edition of the book--why did you decide to update it, and can you say more about how you changed it?
A: I was finally ready to explore my own dark corners. For the first edition I was still too deep in my own healing to even consider writing about buried trauma, but in 2022, when the opportunity arose to rewrite it, I was ready.
Much of Ananda’s story is my own, but I also added some “wishlist” elements—I made Ananda able to communicate with animals on an intuitive level—something I would LOVE to be able to do!
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: Hope. Persistence. The understanding that we are each on our own “Hero’s Journey.” We’ve all watched movies of heroes going up against incredible odds, but what we forget is that living our own lives, tackling our own dark corners is heroic. It will never make the front page, but that quiet heroism is what’s always made the world progress.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I have quite a few writing projects simmering on the back burner, but I am wearing my illustrator cap at the moment.
I write and illustrate picture books under my full name, Andrea Torrey Balsara, and am illustrating the long-overdue sequel to my picture book Greenbeard the Pirate Pig, a story about a guinea pig who dreams of being a pirate! It’s funny and makes me laugh as I’m illustrating.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Five years ago, I discovered energy medicine, which transformed my health and opened a new world to me. I’m now training as a practitioner and Reiki master, working with both people and pets. I volunteer at a donkey sanctuary, using energy medicine to help donkeys live their "happily ever after."
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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