Author Deeba Zargarpur takes inspiration from her own Afghan-Uzbek heritage, this contemporary YA debut, House of Yesterday, is a breathtaking journey into the grief that lingers through generations of immigrant families, and what it means to confront the ghosts of your past.
Hi, Deeba! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Sure! I am a YA writer who is still a big kid at heart. I find a lot of comfort in familiarity, so when I’m not rewatching Inuyasha, I’m replaying Kingdom Hearts and Mass Effect. I’ll always pick hot coffee over any other beverage (yes, even in the summer, iced coffee does not compare to hot!). And even though my apartment is crammed with the newest tech, you’ll still find me scribbling away in an old notebook, dreaming up new worlds to get lost in.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
My mom loves to say I was telling once upon a times before I knew how to spell. I’ve always loved stories and the way they can transport you to someplace magical. I remember being a kid and everything being a story. It didn’t matter where I was, I always found a way to transform a daycare into a space adventure, an old office room into a time machine. It’s something that’s always been a part of me.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I remember reading was Black Beauty (and I think the reason why I still remember it is because I was so proud to finish a book like that in the second grade). The series that made me want to become an author was the Legend series by Marie Lu. I remember finishing the third book, mind racing, and thinking you know what, maybe I could do this too. That series had everything I loved in media and I’m so grateful to Marie’s work for being that spark that inspired me. The book I can’t stop thinking about is Jennette McCurdy’s memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. This book is just wow. It’s not my normal reading fare, but it’s one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read. Though, there is discussion of abuse, eating disorders, cancer, and parent death. So while I recommend, please note that the book deals with some tough subject matter.
Your debut novel, House of Yesterday, is out November 29th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Heartbreaking. Delirious. Dream-like. Haunting. Hopeful.
What can readers expect?
House of Yesterday, at its core, is a story about love—specifically love of family and what happens when everything you thought you knew about that love was a half-truth. Sara is experiencing the worst heart break of her life—the break up of her parents, and the slow realization that she is being erased from her grandmother’s memories due to dementia. All Sara wants is to have that love back, that picture perfect storybook fairytale of what her family once was. So when an abandoned home gives way to ghostly appiritons of her family from before, Sara dives head first into the past. But looking back has its own set of problems, and when a darker family history is revealed, Sara must confront all the jagged edges of her family’s past before the house’s true intentions are revealed…
Where did the inspiration for House of Yesterday come from?
The story originally started as a journal entry. I write to let go of emotion. It’s how I’ve always coped with the things I couldn’t control in my life by writing down an alternate set of events, how I wished certain scenarios could have gone, if that makes sense. The moment House of Yesterday turned into an actual story was when I was touring an abandoned home and felt the presence of something else living there—a heavy sort of feeling that made me wonder about the history that makes a place and the memories that get left behind in walls.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
Writing this book was my way of letting go of the things I couldn’t control—my parents’ divorce, my grandmother’s dementia, the pain war carried through the generations of my Afghan family. Writers often give the advice “write what you know” but what they leave out is the pain that comes when you pull from topics that are near to your heart. What helped me get through some of the tougher themes was having that layer of separation between myself and Sara. Sara is nothing like me. She is rash and bold and a huge pain in the butt, so writing how she’d handle these experiences helped me a lot.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
The cousins. I loved all the scenes that involved the entire cousin group. Growing up, I didn’t really have that many friends outside of my very large family. Having over a hundred cousins doesn’t really leave space for non-family friends, so it was important for me to see close cousin bonds and all the chaos that comes with it.
What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
It was tough. I amassed over 200 rejections while in the querying trenches. Querying was the worst experience (I’m sure other writers agree with me LOL), and after I reached the 200 mark, I was ready to give up. I decided I’d try one last Twitter pitch contest and if that didn’t work out, I’d close out my writing dream. Lucky for me, that contest is what connected me with my agent (who funnily enough, gave me a form rejection on the first book I queried and then shelved). From there, submission had its own struggles, but all you need is one yes, and I was lucky to find the perfect editor who completely understood my book.
What’s next for you?
I’m switching gears and heading into middle grade with a new contemporary fantasy series thats got a whole lot of adventure with big emotions. Farrah Noorzad and the Ring of Fate is the adventure I wished for as a kid. It’s about eleven year old Farrah who finds out her distant father is a jinn king, and after a disastrous wish gone wrong on a magical ring, Farrah has to travel to the floating home of the jinn to save her father before it’s too late. It’s fun, magical, and pulls from my favorite fantasy franchises as a kid, only this time a strong and spunky Afghan American girl gets to be the hero.
Lastly, what have been some of your favourite 2022 reads? Any 2023 releases our readers should look out for?
Two 2022 reads I highly rec are We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds and Other Side of the Tracks by Charity Alyse. For 2023, you absolutely cannot miss The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim.
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Follow Deeba on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok at @deebazargarpur.
