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Interview

Alli Sinclair p3

Alli Sinclair, the author of Burning Fields, a romance set in the sugar cane country of far north Queensland just after WW2, talks about her favorite books...

As far as book recommendations go, Alli Sinclair liked The Social Climbers, by Chris Darwin and Charles Amy. It recounts an eccentric expedition to hold the world’s highest dinner party, on the summit of Peru’s highest mountain. Only two of the nine climbers had previous experience. The book reveals the characters of the participants on the journey, and there is a combination of sadness and humor in the tale. It’s written by a great-great grandson of Charles Darwin. “You feel like you’re there,” Alli Sinclair said.
Chasing the Monsoon by Alexander Frater was another favorite. Around May 20 the monsoon heads from the east and west of India, uniting in central India around July 10. The author follows it, watching its impact.
There was also a biography of Andre Agassi the author had liked, which was probably Open: An Autobiography. He describes tennis as a prison he tried to escape for 30 years. The book has been described as a first-rate sports memoir, and a darkly funny but also anguished and soulful story.
She loved the saga A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Set just after the partition of India and Indian independence of 1947, it tells the tale of Mrs Rupa Mehra’s attempts to arrange a marriage of her daughter, 19-year-old Mehra, to a suitable boy.
Alli Sinclair planned on reading Carpathia, by Jay Ludowyke, a narrative non-fiction about the ship sent to rescue survivors from the Titanic. It was sunk by a U-boat in WW1, and was later explored by a dive team.
Alli Sinclair’s next book is set on a fictional tv mini series. “A friend’s uncle just happens to be a producer.” She spent 12 hours on the set. She spoke to wardrobe and hair stylists, and the director took her around the set.
She doesn’t read her books once they’re published because she knows she’d want to edit them. But she said she misses characters. They become part of your life, she said.

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