Drunk on Ink Q & A with Madi Sinha and ‘The White Coat Diaries’, a novel
Drunk on Ink is a blast interview series by Soniah Kamal author of the novel Unmarriageable, a parallel retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and set in contemporary Pakistan
Madi Sinha is a writer and practicing physician who loves the nervous system, bookshops, tea with milk and snarky conversation (but not necessarily in that order). She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children. The White Coat Diaries is her first novel.
About The White Coat Diaries
Having spent the last twenty-something years with her nose in a textbook, brilliant and driven Norah Kapadia has just landed the medical residency of her dreams. But after a disastrous first day, she’s ready to quit. Disgruntled patients, sleep deprivation, and her duty to be the “perfect Indian daughter” have her questioning her future as a doctor. Enter chief resident Ethan Cantor. He’s everything Norah aspires to be: respected by the attending physicians, calm during emergencies, and charismatic with his patients. And as he morphs from Norah’s mentor to something more, it seems her luck is finally changing. But when a fatal medical mistake is made, pulling Norah into a cover-up, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect the secret. What if “doing no harm” means putting herself at risk?
SONIAH KAMAL: First author/book you read/fell in love with? Why?
MADI SINHA: I was a huge Nancy Drew fan as a kid.
To unwind: chai, coffee, water, wine?
Tea with milk.
A novel, short story, poem, essay, anything you believe should be mandatory reading? Why?
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (RIP) because it will remind you of what really matters in this life.
Any classic you wished you’d pushed through in your teens?
Favorite quote from your book
“In fact, the entire academic establishment of the time seemed convinced that a female was too dainty and fragile a creature for the gritty practice of medicine. I like to think that I salute all the women who came before me by standing here, right now, with my gloved finger inserted up this elderly man’s rectum.”
Favorite book to film? And why?
A Room With a View by E. M. Forster watch trailer here. Both the novel and the film are pure joy.
Favorite Indie Book Store/s?
Inkwood Books in Haddonfield, NJ
The one thing you wish you’d known about the writing life?
Honestly, how much I’d enjoy it. I’m used to thinking of myself as a science person, not an artist, and I wasn’t sure I was well suited to a life with more art and by extension, more vulnerability, to it. As it turns out, I love it.
Does writing/publishing/marketing get any easier with each story/novel published?
This is my first novel, so I’m not sure, but I do hope it gets easier. Ask me again in 2022.
Dog, Cat, Or?
I’d love any pet, but we’re at capacity right now. I can’t even handle the added responsibility of a houseplant.
Ideal vacation?
Somewhere warm, on a beach, with minimal company, a library, a breakfast buffet, and abundant childcare.
Favorite book cover?
The Royal Abduls by Ramiza Shamoun Koya (RIP)
Favorite song?
Favorite painting/ work of art?
The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins. It used to hang in one of the campus buildings of the hospital where I did my residency before it was sold to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I love it so much, it makes an appearance in The White Coat Diaries.
The Gross Clinic
Any Lit Festival anecdote you want a share? A great meeting with a fan? An epiphany?
I’ve never been to a lit festival, but someone I work with told me she stayed up all night reading my book, and it was the best compliment of my life.
Do you have a favorite film, or two, or three?
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is my all-time favorite. watch trailer here. I can’t watch it and not feel moved, even though I’ve seen it a dozen times.
(It is based on the short story by James Thurber).
What is your favorite Austen novel, and film adaptation? Why?
Sense and Sensibility (watch trailer here) is my favorite Austen novel and film adaptation. I’m a huge Emma Thompson fan.
Recommend a Small Press and/or Literary Journal?
Does Catapult count as small press? Their books are amazing.
Last impulse book buy and why?
The Night Theater by Vikram Paralkar. I heard the author was also a doctor from Philadelphia and I had to buy it. I was not disappointed; it’s a beautiful book.
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Chika Unigwe, Better Late Than Never, short story collection
Anju Gattani: Duty and Desire, a novel
Christopher Swann: Never Turn Back, a novel
Zetta Elliott: A Place Inside of Me, middle grade fiction
Veena Rao: Purple Lotus, a novel
Tara Coyt: Real Talk About LGBTQIAP, non fiction
Maureen Joyce Connelly: Little Lovely Things, a novel
Molly Greeley: The Heiress, historical fiction novel
Donna Miscolta: Living Color, short stories
Mike Chen: Here and Now and Then, a novel
Ruth Franklin: Shirley Jackson A Rather Haunted Life, biography
Colleen Oakley: Before I Go, a novel
Emily Midorikawa: A Secret Sisterhood: The literary friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf, biography
Shabnam Samuel: A Fractured Life, memoir
Elise Hooper: The Other Alcott, a novel
Anne Boyd Rioux: Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters, non fiction
Devoney Looser: The Making of Jane Austen, non fiction
Kristen Miller Zohn: The Currency of Taste- Gibbons Georgian Silver, coffee table book
Vanessa Hua, A River of Stars, novel
Chaitli Sen, The Pathless Sky, novel
Sonya Huber, Pain Woman Take Your Keys, memoir
Kathy Wilson Florence, Three of Cups, a novel
Sara Luce Look, Charis Books and More, independent book store
S J Sindu, Marriage of a Thousand Lies, a novel
Rosalie Morales Kearns, Kingdom of Men, a novel
Saadia Faruqi, Meet Yasmin, children’s literature
Rene Denfeld: The Child Finder, a novel
Jamie Brenner, The Husband Hour, a novel
Sara Marchant, The Driveway has Two Sides, memoir
Kirsten Imani Kasai, The House of Erzulie, a novel
Thrity Umrigar, The Secrets Between Us, novel
John Kessel, Pride and Prometheus, novel
Lisa Romeo, Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir of Love After Loss
Rachel May, An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery
Rebecca Entel, Fingerprints of Previous Owners, novel
Jamie Sumner, Unbound: Finding from Unrealistic Expectations of Motherhood
Falguni Kothari, My Last Love Story, novel
Tanaz Bathena, A Girl Like That, YA novel
