Deborah Rodriguez is the author of the international bestsellers The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul, Return to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul, The Zanzibar Wife, Island on the Edge of the World and The Moroccan Daughter. She has also written two memoirs: The Kabul Beauty School, about her life in Afghanistan, and The House on Carnaval Street, on her experiences following her return to America. She spent five years teaching and later directing the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty academy and training salon in Afghanistan. Deborah also owned the Oasis Salon and the Cabul Coffee House, and is the founder of the nonprofit organization Oasis Rescue, which aims to teach women in post-conflict and disaster-stricken areas the art of hairdressing. She currently lives in Mazatlán, Mexico, where she owns Tippy Toes salon and spa.
Today, Deborah Rodriguez is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about The Moroccan Daughter. Read on!
Deborah Rodriguez
Tell us about your book, The Moroccan Daughter!
DR: I love this book. It has everything that gets my heart pumping ⎯ long-held secrets, forbidden love, clashing cultures, the strength of family, all set against the backdrop of one of my favourite places on earth, Morocco. Plus, we get to venture there with two of my favourite characters: Bea and Charlie, the grandmother/granddaughter hairdressing duo we first met in my last novel, Island on the Edge of the World. We’re introduced to the magic of this ancient world through their eyes, as well as from the perspective of our Moroccan protagonist, Amina, who has travelled back home from America to confront her traditionalist father with some shocking news. Let’s just say things get way more complicated from there.
Where did the inspiration for this book come from?
DR: I first visited Morocco in 2009, and immediately fell in love with the people and the culture. The moment I walked through the gates of the ancient medina in Fès, I felt like I wanted to move there. Ever since, I’ve wanted to write a book set in that country. But finding the right inspiration and the perfect story took time. Then I was introduced to a Moroccan-born woman, now living in the United States, married to an American guy. She had so many tales to tell, and although her family was way more accepting of her choice of a mate than Amina’s was, she did inspire many of the elements of this story. At the same time I was talking with her, gathering ideas, I was reading anything and everything I could find about Morocco. When I came across mention of the Imilchil marriage festival, I knew that it had to be a central part of the book. I needed to see and experience it for myself. So I booked a trip timed with the event, and up the Atlas Mountains I went.
What appeals to you about writing a story of forbidden love?
DR: Doesn’t it seem like the best love stories are about forbidden love? Personally, I’ve experienced forbidden love a few times in my life, with both happy and very tragic endings. Maybe that is why I’m drawn to forbidden love stories. I am a firm believer that everyone has the right to love who they choose to love. Love is love, and it is not that easy to control.
You’ve written a few international bestsellers. Does the pressure of writing the next great thing ever get to you, or do you find it inspiring?
DR: I write because I have a story inside that is bursting to come out. I never focus on it being a best seller. I focus on telling a good story. It’s always rewarding when a book does sell well, but I keep that pressure as far away from me as possible.
How did you come to be a writer?
DR: I wrote in a typical diary with the lock and key, which evolved into notebooks full of my private thoughts and desires. As I got older and began traveling, I would always write every day to make sure I didn’t forget a thing. I also played around by writing sketches, one-act plays for a drama group I worked with. But it wasn’t until I went to Afghanistan that I knew that what I was experiencing would someday be a book. There, I often couldn’t believe what I was seeing, that my life was what it was. Afghanistan was difficult, and writing was a great form of therapy. I decided to see if I could sell the book I was calling, at the time, ‘There Are Warlords in My Living Room’. Random House thought The Kabul Beauty School was a better title, and that is how it all began.
As well as running a beauty salon in Mexico, you’re the founder of the non-profit organisation Oasis Rescue. Can you tell us a little bit about it and the kind of work you do?
DR: In Afghanistan, and now in Mexico, my goal was to offer women training in the beauty industry, to assist them in becoming independent, earning a living wage, and being able to take care of their families and children. In Afghanistan, I had a beauty school, and in Mexico, I have a salon, where we do in-house training for the staff. Oasis Rescue, my non-profit organization, gives scholarships to women to attend beauty school, esthetician school, and nail school.
Can you tell us some of your all-time favourite authors?
DR: Luis Alberto Urrea, Jamie Ford, Alice Hoffman, Lisa Wingate and Dinah Jefferies.
What was the last book you read and loved?
DR: Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother’s Letter to Her Son by Homeira Qaderi.
What do you hope readers will discover in The Moroccan Daughter?
DR: Morocco is an incredibly beautiful and mystical country. It’s a spectacular feeling when you enter the ancient medina and sense the history all around you. I relish the opportunity to share that with my readers. As in all my books, I’ve tried to dig deep beneath the surface, to use the story as a vehicle for examining real life ⎯ the traditions and daily rituals, the beliefs and attitudes, the richness of the culture ⎯ at a level one would probably not find as a tourist.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
DR: First of all, I am waiting for the pandemic to end so that I can travel again. All my books take place in wonderful and exotic locations, and it’s obviously not appropriate for me to travel right now if I don’t have to.
That said, there is a story I’ve been wanting to tell for a few years. It’s fiction, inspired by a very personal experience between my mother and me. The story is there, but I’ll need to travel before I can complete it. Fingers crossed.
Thanks Deborah!
—The Moroccan Daughter by Deborah Rodriguez (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.
The Moroccan Daughter
Morocco: a captivating country of honor and tradition. And, for these four women, a land of secrets and revelations.
From the twisted alleyways of the ancient medina of Fès to a marriage festival high in the Atlas Mountains, Deborah Rodriguez’s entrancing new bestseller is a modern story of forbidden love set in the sensual landscape of North Africa. Author of The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul and The Zanzibar Wife...
Read an extract from Island on the Edge of the World by Deborah Rodriguez!
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