Alina Boyden Books In Order

Publication Order of Stealing Thunder Books

Alina Boyden is an American author, trans rights activist and student of cultural anthropology. She became widely known when she won a transgender case fighting for the rights of transgender employees For a very long time she has been involved in the civil rights struggle in Pakistan and India but currently splits her time between South Asia and the United States. Her work focuses on the khwaja Siras who are transgender women in Pakistan that use their unique organizational skills to advance their rights abroad and at home. She was inspired by the spirit of these women in her civil rights case in the United States where she won the landmark transgender case with the ACLU. Alina wrote Stealing Thunder her transportive and gorgeous debut in 2020. It is an immersive work hat synthesizes her anthropological work with Mughal Indian history. For inspiration she uses her work with South Asian transgender communities to make a beautiful fantasy setting for a range of brilliant characters. When she is not working on her doctoral dissertation, traveling or writing her novels, she will be found engaging in flying airplanes or swordplay which are her childhood passions.

Boyden first leaned about the Khwaja sira as a twelve or thirteen-year-old when she was searching the world for people like her. Growing up she learned from her superiors and teachers that being transgender was a modern thing and that trans people were for the most part found in West. In fact, it was taught that it was a form of pathology. As such, it was quite an eye-opening experience to learn that trans gender women were an accepted part of a very old civilization. She learned for herself what being transgender meant since transness as a phenomenon was not prevalent in the cultural understanding. It was shocking to learn that there was a culture where transness was broadly acknowledged and widely known. It made her realize that things in America could be very different if she could do her part to change the narrative from what it was growing up. She believed that there were many ways for the trans gender to exist in a community oriented and visible form as seen in the South Asian communities of the khwaja sira and hijra.

Alina Boyden was fascinated by the 16th and 17th century Gunpowder Empires since she was very young. It was a time when world military dominance was still a long way away. It was a time when the Ottomans rules the roost in the East and terrorized Vienna. It was during this time that the wealthiest country in the world was India. The empires of the time then had a huge proportion of the GDP of the world, a huge percentage of the population and produced some of the best architecture and the finest art the world had ever seen. Boyden has said that had she not been educated with Eurocentric history of the world in the US, she would have been shocked and amazed. She would have wondered why people did not focus on the Red Fort of Agra and relentlessly studied a dreary and tiny island in the North Atlantic.

Stealing Thunder by Alina Boyden is the story of Razia Khan a former prince. She changed her name and is now one of the stealthiest climbers of walls. She also steals swiftly and quietly from the rich and is one of the best and most alluring dancers in town. She is now a transgender woman who wears a dera and
lives and works with a bunch of trans women that escaped discrimination and beatings. Most of them believed that they had women’s souls thought they were born with men’s bodies. Razia met Prince

Arjun while performing and he was immediately taken by her. Smitten by her beauty and whit, he starts spending a lot of time with her even as she continues with her kleptomaniac ways. As their infatuation becomes more than friendship, they are spending more time together which means she comes very close to getting caught in her escapades. Razia decides that it is getting too risky and decides to tell him the truth. They share a love for large feathered creatures called zahhaks which only the very elite in their society are allowed to ride. He is taken by her abilities to maneuver and control them and she gets the chance to do that when political war breaks out close to home. She had endured a troubled childhood but also have to prove to Arjun’s family that she does not have ulterior motives with their son. While she manages to become concubine in his home the threat from her father is still there and she needs to save her sister from the same too.

One Response to “Alina Boyden”

1. roberta cirocco: 2 years ago

   I enjoyed Stealing Thunder that I felt compelled to let you know. It was inventive and well written.

   Waiting to read the sequel and more

   Thank you

   Reply