2026-01-01
1 小时 7 分钟This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
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Hello, welcome to BBC World Book Club,
where you get to talk about their books with the world's best loved authors.
I'm your host Harriet Gilbert and today we're joined by the Indian-born writer Chitra Banaji Divakaruni.
She'll be answering questions about her spectacular novel The Palace of Illusions,
a reimagining of the ancient Sanskrit epic The Mahabharat,
a tale of princely cousins at war, vengeance and hatred, desire and love,
but seen here through the eyes of one of the story's female characters.
Chitra, a big welcome to BBC World Book Club.
Thank you, I'm delighted to be here with you.
I know you're talking to us from Texas, but in fact you were born and grew up in India,
which is I assume where you first came to learn about the Mahabharat.
Yes indeed, I learned about this wonderful epic when I was a child, maybe eight years old,
when my grandfather told me the story and he told and retold the story of the Mahabharat as well as our other epic the Ramayana.
And those stories they just stayed with me.