I think that when I was writing I didn’t always know where it was going.

So I want to clarify-there was no shape when you were writing it? And every vignette was written in isolation and you just brought it all together? There is poetry that’s from the father’s perspective and then the experiences of the sisters are bound by vignettes. I’m so glad you mentioned that you didn’t write the novel in a chronological order, because the shape is very unconventional. So I think for me it was really just kind of seeing the different ways that the character wanted to reveal itself and like what and how that was happening at a specific moment in their life. But now they’re a little bit more grown up and they’re a little bit more grown up and they’re a little bit more grown up. And to me, it was just knowing that at this age, this feels like something somebody would say or think or feel or at this age, this feels like that same character.

You’re the first person who’s commented on the subtle shift in the voice-like how you kind of watched this character grow up and it mimics the voice of the prose and is in the voice of the lyric.

I’m really glad that you asked me this question. So there were really different voices that were coming to me and I was like, “Oh, I wonder what this is or what’s exactly going on?” And then I think I realized that they were the same character at different points in this character’s life. I wrote that and then I wrote some of the ones around the bunk bed at the very beginning. There was a moment where I think one of the first sections I wrote was the one where she’s with Bobby on the sand and the water. I didn’t know what I was writing but I would just keep writing and be like, “Okay, that’s one thing or here’s another thing.” It actually didn’t even come to me chronologically. When I first started writing the book, it kind of came to me as different vignettes and so I would just sit at the computer and keep writing. I want to know how you settled at starting with a child’s voice and having it grow with Kausar? It also changes-albeit very subtly-as she grows. I wanted to start by talking about voice, just because of how compelling and lyrical Kausar’s voice is.

When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar