Margaret Mascarenhas's Biography
Member Info
Aldona, Goa, India
Sep 2008
Margaret Mascarenhas is a consulting editor, curator and novelist, the author of the Diasporic novel, Skin, Penguin India 2001 (published in French translation by Mercure de France in 2002, and in Portuguese translation by Editora Replicacao in 2006), and of The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos , Hachette 2009, which was a Barnes and Noble Discover pick.
An American citizen of Goan origin who grew up in Venezuela, she lives mostly in Goa and is the Advisory Board Convenor of the Goa Centre for the Arts.
She is working on her third novel, as well as on collections of her columns and short stories.
Influences
I write stories I'd like to read.
Upcoming Works
Triage--casualties of love and sex, a collection of poems, flash memoir and sketches,will be out in Sept 2013 with Harper Collins India
Currently working on: a third novel, Just Another Car Bomb, set in Beirut,a collection of columns about Goa
Agents
Ellen Levine
Recommended Links
Publishers
Penguin-India
Grand Central/Hachette
Interests & Hobbies
Cooking, gardening, music, restoring old houses, wrestling my 3 big dogs, people watching.
Mascarenhas uses a 15-year-old girl's disappearance to spin a multilayered history of a Venezuelan family, incorporating folklore, political intrigue and magical realism...Other recurring themes tying together disparate plot strands: an underground political struggle, the legend of unofficial saint Maria Lionza, telenovela screenwriting and the act of storytelling (a Martinez family obsession). At times overwhelming in its breathless explosions of information, this family epic is immersive; no character or event is left unexplored from multiple perspectives. Indeed, the conclusion is like the final piece of an intricate puzzle. ”
—Publishers Weekly
About Margaret
Margaret Mascarenhas is a consulting editor, curator and novelist, the author of the Diasporic novel, Skin, Penguin India 2001 (published in French translation by Mercure de France in 2002, and in Portuguese translation by Editora Replicacao in 2006), and of...
Connections
Causes Margaret Mascarenhas Supports
Goa Bachao Abhiyan
PEN USA
Margaret’s Favorite Books
Love in the Time of Cholera, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The Implacable Order of Things, Canto General, Anthills of the Savannah, Sula, ...and others