Mapping the unknown

Indian novelist Deepa Anappara tells Tina Jackson about exploring the effects of colonialism in her new novel set in 19th-century Tibet, and why fiction is where historically silenced voices can have

Great writing widens its readers’ perceptions. It allows us insight into ways of existence beyond our experience, and in doing so, it alters our understanding of the human condition. That’s exactly what happens in Indian novelist Deepa Anappara’s new book, The Last of Earth. It’s beautifully written historical literary fiction which takes its readers deep into a journey through 19th-century Tibet, as its two central characters, surveyor Balram and explorer Katherine, set out on expeditions into a land that was closed to outsiders. A gripping adventure novel told from the perspective of characters whose stories are more usually unheard, it asks huge, necessary questions of its readers about colonialism, mapping, and claiming territory