Mahi Cheshire on writing a South Asian woman who refuses to behave
As an author of Sri Lankan origin, growing up, I rarely found books which featured people like me. When I did they were few and far between, and often the characters were stereotyped or limited to a few genres. What I wanted back then, was to discover books with characters who felt multifaceted and real. When I started writing The Lying Guest, I quickly realised my Sri Lankan protagonist Anika wasn’t going to behave in the way people might expect. That choice felt honest. But it also felt quietly radical.
Because despite the growing number of South Asian characters in media, we still rarely see brown women allowed this kind of freedom in fiction. We’re often cast in familiar roles, such as the dutiful daughter caught between cultures or the victim of a strict family. There’s often an unspoken pressure, both cultural and industry-driven, to be palatable, to explain ourselves. I didn’t want to do any of that.
My protagonist Anika, a successful surgeon living in London, appears to have her life on track. Until she makes a mistake during surgery. In escaping the consequences she goes back to Sri Lanka and has to confront a complicated past. Anika is under stress, unbalanced and soon the cracks start to show. She’s complex and her behaviour at times messy. Writing her this way felt counter to the expectations placed on South Asian writers.
The industry seems to prefer certain kinds of stories from writers of colour. Ones that centre trauma, oppression, or identity crises. These stories are valid and necessary, but when they are the only kind of narratives available, they reinforce a narrow lens, where South Asian women are expected to behave properly and not take up too much space.
It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that at one point in the book, Anika punches a male colleague. An early beta reader suggested I change it to a slap, which they thought was more ‘appropriate.’ But I didn’t want Anika to perform her anger in a way that would be perceived as more reasonable. As a high achieving surgeon in a male dominated world, the punch felt true to her.
Anika is also sexually free, something else we rarely see when it comes to brown women in fiction. She owns her desire and there are no punishments or moral lessons waiting for her at the end. She’s not ‘redeemed’ by marriage or cast down by shame. Giving her this space, to fail, to fight, to not behave, felt like a rebellion against stereotyped views.
What surprised me most is how natural it felt, once I gave myself permission. The so-called radical act wasn’t her punching someone or having sex without guilt. It was letting her exist without explanation. Representation isn’t just about ticking boxes. It’s about expanding what’s possible. Brown women deserve to see ourselves not just as dutiful or damaged, but as everything in between. Reckless, ambitious, bold, chaotic. Human.
The Lying Guest was published by Harvill on 5 June 2025
