Q&A with Gian Sardar

From my Q&A with Gian Sardar, author of Take What You Can Carry: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Take What You Can Carry is a title I lifted from the pages of my book, in a scene where one of my Kurdish characters talks about being forced to flee to the mountains during the government attacks. The book takes place in 1979, mostly in Kurdistan of Iraq, and was originally called No Friends But The Mountains, which is a Kurdish proverb. However, right as I finished the book, another work came out with that same title. Perhaps it was fortuitous, because while hunting for a title I saw the words on the page and knew right away that I’d found my title - and it’s a title I love. Not only does it capture the actual physical goal of running with whatever you can grab, but it plays upon a thematic element of the book as well.

What's in a name?

Picking a name can make or break a character for me. In...[read on]

Visit Gian Sardar's website.

Q&A with Gian Sardar.

--Marshal Zeringue