The British-Cambodian writer and editor initially wrote ‘The Ministry of Time’ – her gripping sci-fi rom-com debut – as a joke for a handful of friends. The genre-bending thriller, which explores themes including immigration and environmentalism, became an instant bestseller. Even before the novel landed on bookshelves last month, the BBC beat Netflix in a bidding war to turn the book into a TV drama. Kaliane Bradley tells Georgina Godwin about the obligation she felt to write a “serious” book about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, her work at Penguin Classics as an editor, and how her funny and fantastical debut came about. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello, this is Meet the Writers.
I'm Georgina Godwin.
My guest today is a British Cambodian writer and editor at Penguin Books.
She's published several short stories and won the 2022 Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize and the VS Pritchett Prize.
Her debut novel was published to much critical acclaim.
A major TV adaptation is in the works, and rights to the book have been sold in 19 territories.
The ministry of Time is a science fiction rom com that sees and wield.
Come back to that.
That sees a disgruntled civil servant offered a job in a mysterious new government ministry in London where she must test the limits of time travel, exploring themes such as immigration and environmentalism.
She is one of the Observer's best new novelists for 2024, and I cannot tell you how wonderful this book is.
Kalyan Bradley, welcome to Meet the writers.
Thank you so much, Georgina.
I'm so thrilled to be here.
Sci fi rom com?
Is that what it is?
It's been difficult to explain exactly what it is.
Whenever people ask me, what genre do you think it is?
I say, whatever you want me to be, I'll be whoever you want me to be.
Because of course, because it involves time travel, because it does have to pull people from the past, it must be sci fi.
But because the central story is a love story, it must be a romance, because it's funny, it must be a rom com.