Q&A with Radiya Hafiza

  

Photo by Naomisha Phillips

 

 

 

Radiya Hafiza is the author of the new young adult novel The Silver Kingdom. Her other books include the middle grade novel Aya and the Star Chaser. She lives near London. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Silver Kingdom, and how did you create your characters Zayd and Layla?

 

A: I have always wanted to write an epic love story but I hadn’t found the right framing for the story until a few years ago. I was talking to my parents one day about their experience of surviving the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and found myself wanting to commemorate this part of my family history somehow.

 

The idea of The Silver Kingdom and its countries emerging after colonisation, grappling with the damage that had been wrought upon them, began to form soon after this conversation and I found myself mapping out the world from there. I wanted to explore the lasting effects of colonialism on the region while creating a powerful love story.

 

Zayd and Layla had always lived in my head for a long time so it wasn’t too hard to flesh them out. I knew they were both loyal and fierce in their own ways, and would go to the ends of the earth for the one they loved – but that it would come with a cost.

 

Layla is almost a reluctant hero at first, full of self-doubt that her mother has inflicted on her. When she meets Zayd, who is more self-assured and knows his role in his family, in his kingdom, she finally finds someone who she can be herself around again and ignites that fire in her that has been missing for some time.

 

As much as this is a postcolonial fantasy book, this is ultimately a love story between two young people who could destroy their kingdoms with their choices.

 

Q: How did you create the world in which the story is set?

 

A: I drew on maps from the region of South Asia, and loosely based my world on the borders of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.

 

It’s not an accurate recreation due to the plot of the story and the movement I needed to create, but I drew on the history of a country that used to be one until it was cut up by the colonisers and what life, the economy, the society looked like after independence had been gained.

 

I also looked to the Mughal period for inspiration around the court, as well as my own love of reading fantasy and romantasy novels to create a world that speaks of a certain period in South Asian history, while also bearing the familiar hallmarks of a modern fantasy romance novel.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I always set out with a plan and an idea of how I imagine my stories to unfold but once I start writing the characters take me on their own journey and my plans go out of the window. I follow their lead a lot of the time.

 

I usually have a rough idea of how the story may end but it’s through the drafting process that everything changes but ultimately gets solidified. If you saw the first iteration of the book to the final published one, they are two completely different novels!

 

Q: You’ve written for different age groups--do you have a preference?

 

A: I have really enjoyed writing middle grade and I am so proud of my first books, but my heart has always been in YA. This genre has always been one of my absolute favourites to read and write in.

 

It has been so much fun making the switch to YA and getting to work with a larger word count, tackle more mature themes, and explore characters and their relationships in a different way to middle grade.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am currently working on the sequel to The Silver Kingdom, which is almost done! It has been a much larger and more complex book to the first one, but it’s also been so much fun to work on. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb