Best-selling author Roshani Chokshi names her six favorite book recommendations for people who want modern fairy tales. Chokshi’s fourteenth novel–and first for adults–is The Last Tale of the Flower Bride and it’s just out in paperback. Like many of her previous books for kids and young adults, it echoes previous masterworks like the gothic classic Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and a thousand folk stories, though it’s also a warning about the dangers of believing in fairy tales.
Every one of Chokshi’s titles has been a bestseller and Time named her middle grade book Aru Shah and the End of Time one of the 100 Best Fantasy Novels of All Time.
In an exclusive article for Parade, Chokshi shares why “Snow White” and the like have such a magnetic pull on readers. She also picks six of her favorite novels that are modern updates of classic myths and fairy tales. But she begins with a story….
Once upon a time, a sultan asked his three daughters how much they loved him. The first replied that she loved him as much as his weight in rubies and emeralds. The second replied that she loved him as much as his weight in gold and silver. The third daughter fell quiet. Finally, she said: “Father, I love you as much as your weight in salt.”
The sultan was furious at his younger daughter’s answer. He banished her from his sight and married her off to the first prince who asked for her hand. Many years later, the sultan and his retinue were invited to a beautiful, distant land. When they arrived, a feast was set before them. There were mounds of glistening rice studded with rare herbs; whole pheasants cooked in a sauce of plums; bronzed haunches of meat and every manner of iced cakes, honey trifles and elaborate fruit pies one might imagine. The sultan took a bite and scowled. For all that the food was beautiful, it was…rather tasteless.
He sampled another dish, then another and another. All the food was bland and unmemorable. It tastes of unbaked dreams and lopsided delights, and the sultan was miserable.
“It is missing salt!” one of his courtiers declared, and they fell upon themselves to extoll the humble mineral. Oh, what flavors it could draw out! What riches it might wrest from a humble cut of meat! What was worth eating without it!
The sultan thought of his youngest daughter and wept into his napkin: “Now I understand how my youngest daughter loved me!”
At that moment, the youngest daughter–now the queen of this strange land–stepped into the hall with a great smile. Father and daughter reconciled. A dish of salt was brought out and they all feasted happily.
I love this tale. As I wrote it out, I thought about googling whether or not I’d gotten the details right. Was it a sultan or a duke? His youngest daughter or middle son? In the end, I’ve decided it doesn’t really matter. Retellings of myth and fairytale are rarely preoccupied with the details. That is not the reason why we tell them. They are, if you’ll forgive me for this, the unsung salt of stories. Essential. Enhancing. Taken utterly for granted for they are basic and blank and mutable.
Often, I’m asked why I revisit and retell myths and fairytales. Surely, it’s gotten old. Surely, there’s nothing new to say…and yet, in every resurrection and reincarnation of an old tale, it is not the tale that becomes more illuminated, but ourselves. A myth explores the unknowable, and I can think of nothing more inscrutable than the human soul. We need myths the way we need salt. Without sodium, we cannot live, and without myths, we cannot continue living.
When we retell such stories we are not only participating in the grand tradition of celebrating how humans have always moved through the world…we are also centering ourselves within it. I am delighted to share, below, the tales that have moved me. My hope is they illuminate a corner of your heart as well.
To me, nothing is more sweeping, tragic and rich as the Sanskrit epics. In Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, the author takes a queen reviled from the days of legend and makes her gloriously human. Reading it was a breathless exploration, like prying open a window into the Ramayana itself and watching the story unfurl from a whole new vantage point. To read it is like hearing a secret not meant for you, and I can’t imagine anything more delicious. Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel ($19.99; Red Hook) Buy now on Amazon , Barnes and Noble , Bookshop.org
“Snow White” has always been a favorite fairytale of mine. Macabre and unsettling, it is the evil queen who has long held my fascination. Perhaps it is her viciousness. How did she become a villain in the first place? In Julie C. Dao’s Forest of a Thousand Lanterns– an opulent East Asian reimagining of the evil queen’s origins–readers are led down the blood-flecked path of one young woman’s desire for power. Magic dazzles on every page, but it is the choices of 18-year-old Xifeng that will mesmerize readers for years to come. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao ($12.99; Speak) Buy now on Amazon , Barnes and Noble , Bookshop.org
I read Marikit and the Ocean of Stars by Caris Avendaño Cruz in a single sitting. When my Filipino mother told me stories, they were not…gentle. They were full of angry ghosts and monsters that sat in trees and smoked cigars. They were, as one might imagine, a product of the scars left by colonialism. Four hundred years of Spanish rule gutted the Philippines of the practice of its native religions and erased the stories once told. But in Cruz’s assured and vivid prose, readers will wander through a kinder pathway, one lit by the alitaptap (fireflies) into a land ruled by the engkanto and diwata of Filipino folklore. It is the story I wish I had when I was younger, a nightlight for the soul. Marikit and the Ocean of Stars by Caris Avendaño Cruz ($16.99; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Buy now on Amazon , Barnes and Noble , Bookshop.org
I am as inspired by what is on the page as what is not. Perhaps what is most often missing from a fairytale is logic. If I were to chance upon a glass coffin in the woods, I can tell you with utmost certainty that my first thought would not be: “I am filled with the urge to kiss a corpse.” But I digress. The loophole of a tale that has deliciously angered me the most comes from Bluebeard, the tale of the man who slew his wives for reasons only the dead women knew. In T. Kingfisher’s The Seventh Bride, we are treated to a deft examination of power and fortitude, wit and humor. If nostalgia and autumn sunlight could be distilled to a story, it would be this one.
As a shameless magpie, I have gravitated to books whose covers haunt me. Nothing gave me more profound delight than discovering that what lay within was equally arresting. And no cover is as beautiful to me as The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea, which features a painting by the incredible K.Y. Craft. No tale is more arresting either. Rich with Irish mythology, old gods, terrible hellhounds and wild humor, it’s the rare tome of a novel that looks like a door stopper but feels like a single held breath of magic. The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea (Buy a used copy when you find one or head to your library!)
And finally, a tale I have recently rediscovered but which left quite an impression on me when I was twelve years old was The Forever King by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy. I can no longer tell you what happens in it, but I can tell you what happened to me after I read it. I became obsessed with Arthurian lore and convinced that every boulder hid a gleaming sword. I felt with utter certainty that wizards could be trapped in the hollows of great oaks and that heroes and heroines could be reborn to take up their part in quests that never end. The Forever King by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy ($3.99 e-book; TKA Distribution) Buy now on Amazon , Barnes and Noble
For those interested in further reading, I recommend F. Landa Jocano’s Outline of Philippine Mythology . It’s a tricky book to get your hands on, but it is well worth the effort. I also recommend Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and R.K. Narayan’s The Ramayana, both of which I first found on the shelves of my parents’ library. While “Bluebeard” comes to us from the collected tales of Charles Perrault, it is Angela Carter’s version from The Bloody Chamber which endures in my mind. May your daydreams be delicious and all your food well seasoned.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.
Most Popular
Comments / 0