Faraaz Mahomed details influences on novel Mother/Land
Summary and headline written by AI from the source article. How we work
Faraaz Mahomed, a South African novelist living in New York, drew on a variety of literary works and personal experiences while writing his novel, Mother/Land.
The book centers on Salim, a law professor who learns his mother had an affair with a politician during the apartheid era in South Africa.
Mahomed’s own background as a Muslim South African immigrant informed Salim’s character, but he also found inspiration in novels like We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, which explores similar themes of displacement and identity. Mahomed researched the history of forced removals in South Africa, specifically referencing Richard Rive’s Buckingham Palace and Sean Field’s Lost Communities, Living Memories to build a detailed setting for his character Sawligha’s experiences.
He intentionally placed Sawligha’s affair during the time of DF Malan, a key figure in the implementation of apartheid, though he relied primarily on Wikipedia for details about Malan’s life. To develop the character of Salim, Mahomed looked to literary protagonists like those in novels by Philip Roth and Don Delillo, and found a model for Salim’s daughter, Aa’isha, in works such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
He also consulted psychological theories by Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson to portray a child's perspective, while embracing a degree of "weird, unreliable humanness" in her voice. Mahomed also explored works with metaphysical elements, including Zuleika Dobson and novels by Olga Tokarczuk and Ben Okri, to inform the paranormal aspects of his storytelling.
