An Ember in the Ashes Author Sabaa Tahir on the 5 Books That Made Her a Writer

Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes, a bloody fantasy series starter set in the fully fledged world of the Martial Empire, combines epic storytelling with a grim, magic-infused setting. It’s narrated in turns by Laia, a Scholar girl whose people were brutally vanquished by the now-powerful Martials, and Elias, an aspirant in a series of deadly Trials that will determine the empire’s next leader. They cross paths when Laia is embedded as a spy, masquerading as a slave, at Elias’s military school, in what may be a suicide mission. Here’s Tahir to share five of the books that made her a writer.

The Random House Book of Fairy Tales, by Amy Ehrlich (adapter) and Diane Goode (illustrated)
I discovered this beautifully illustrated book in my school library as a six-year-old. At the time, I lived in an isolated desert town where racism was rampant. All I really wanted to do at that age was escape into a different world. All the classics are in here: Rapunzel, The Snow Queen, The Elves and the Shoemaker. As a kid, I related to the characters in these fairy tales because most struggled with a difficult and often unkind world, just like me. And they prevailed—which offered me hope. The stories in this book were also the first ones I was compelled to retell—the beginning of my journey as a storyteller.

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons, by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy
This book is about a Persian girl who goes out and seeks her fortune—something that, in her world, only boys do. The heroine, Buran, is brave and intelligent. Her story was the first I’d read in which a girl from my part of the world was shown in such a positive light. I understood the foreign words and customs, and even though the book is historical fiction about a completely different era, I felt I had more in common with Buran than any of the characters I was reading about in class. I probably read this book 20 times in two years. In fact, I loved it so much I asked the librarian if I could have it. She was very sweet and said “Well, you could ‘lose’ it…” But I didn’t, I was a total goody-two-shoes.

The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks
My older brother gave me this book when I was 11 years old, and it was my gateway book into the epic fantasy genre. The Sword of Shannara is about two brothers who find themselves on an epic quest to save humanity. It borrows from Lord of the Rings, but is still original in its own right. I read it in three days, then reread it, then went out and found every single book Terry Brooks ever wrote, and read all those. Shannara was the first book that inspired me to write my own fantasy.

The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
There’s a joke among South Asians that an entire generation of girls gave up medicine and decided to write because they saw Arundhati Roy do it. (And do it so well she won the Booker Prize.) In my case, this is entirely true. Roy’s book, about fraternal twins growing up in Kerala, India, is an unflinching, disturbing look at the costs of the caste system. It was the first literary novel I read by a female South Asian writer. That fact alone made me believe my writing didn’t have to just be a hobby. It could give me voice and power—two things I felt I never had as a kid. Even now, thinking about this book gives me chills—it’s that powerful.

The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
The Sparrow taught me how important it is to be honest when writing, no matter how difficult the subject matter. The book switches between two time periods: it’s about humanity’s first mission to space; it’s also about one of the mission’s survivors, a Jesuit priest struggling with faith. It combines science fiction with philosophy and theology, all while taking on some of our oldest questions with intelligence and grace. I was sobbing and shaking by the end. But I was also enlightened. At the time, I was working on An Ember in the Ashes and struggling with the darker themes in the novel. The Sparrow gave me the courage to take on those themes with honesty.
 An Ember in the Ashes is on sale now.