From JK Rowling’s world of muggles and wizards where outcasts like Harry Potter attain celebrity status, to Tolkien’s universe where humble hobbits rise up against the darkest of powers, fantasy is a genre of comfort — one that helps people (especially children) come to terms with their perceived ‘otherness’.
In his most recently-released novel, A Map of Days , author Ransom Riggs continues to celebrate non-conformity. The book — the fourth in his fantasy series, Miss Peregrine’s Children — marks the beginning of a new trilogy, moving the setting from the United Kingdom to America, which the author describes as a “Wild West” for his characters.
“I think the idea that there is a normal is kind of fake and invented,” says the author. “Especially in the US, where it feels like we’re expected to conform to this false ideal of normality and happiness, but that’s real for very few people. Even the people who are the most envied — Selena Gomez, who has more followers than anyone else on Instagram, has her own private miseries and anxieties, and we’re not allowed to talk about that. We’re all strange. I think we just need to learn to embrace it.”
In this fourth book in the series, the author moves the setting from the United Kingdom to the United States
Riggs credits his own school — one for intellectually-gifted and talented children — with helping him accept his own ‘peculiarities’. “I was lucky because I went to a school of weirdos and rejects,” he laughs. “We didn’t have sports or cheerleaders, no crazy peer pressure to do drugs or anything. The pressure was to do better on the maths test. That womb-like environment was maybe sublimated partly into the time loop that Miss Peregrine created.”
Whose normal is it?
The first book in the series, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children , which inspired Tim Burton’s 2016 film of the same name, introduced readers to Jacob Portman, a young American teenager who travels back in time to meet the mysterious Miss Peregrine and her ward of children, discovering that he is a ‘peculiar’ with special powers.
“The first three books were about this epic struggle over how to be peculiar and how to run society, and it turned really nasty,” explains Riggs. “In the beginning of this book, they are trying to figure out how to rebuild. Historically, their enemy has been the normal people who drove them into hiding, and they have to now confront modern society and see whether it accepts them or not.”
Freedom to be
The author — who lives in Los Angeles and is married to writer Tahereh Mafi — became a father last year, and is conscious about bringing the lessons of his books to his little girl. “I am going to encourage her to be whoever it is she turns out to be, as much as her inclinations are healthy,” he says. “It's important to create a nurturing environment that’s not too judgmental, and full of creative freedom, which is how I grew up.”
A Map of Days, published by Penguin Random House, is priced at ₹599 and is available at bookstores nationwide.
