Raising the profile of South Asian writers since 2007
Q. The Living is your third novel. Tell us more about the novel writing process. What was different this time round, if at all? The novel writing process is: you’re in the dark, excited to find out about all sorts of things, seeing links, having insights, running around, wondering if you’ve finally lost it (no, actually …
Q. Your debut novel, Londonstani achieved a six-figure advance and was applauded by critics. Looking back, do you think it was a victim of its own early success? The book was clearly a victim of its own hype, but at the same time I actually reckon the hype was this necessary evilness. Because the hype meant that Londonstani found …
Interviewed by James Wilkinson Since publishing her first novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing, Anuradha Roy has developed into one of the most exciting new voices of South Asian literature. Published to critical acclaim, her first novel was published in thirteen different languages. Her second novel, The Folded Earth won the Economist Crossword Book Award 2011 and achieved …
Q. The Private Life of Mrs Sharma is the second novel that you’ve written. Much has been said and written about writing that difficult ‘second novel’. What mindset were you in when you started? I think the difficulty with the second novel that you refer to applies to those (fortunate?) folks whose first books met …
What inspired you to write, A Restless Wind? Where did the story come from? The story had been gestating since I was a teenager fascinated by the family events of a close relative, the Sufism, a certain annual festival held in the grounds of the house that I’ve renamed Qila. That house and its backyard …
What came first the elephant or Inspector Chopra? You could say Ganesha, the baby elephant in the series, gatecrashed the party. After living in India for 10 years I wanted to write a novel that took readers on a journey to the heart of the subcontinent – and I wanted the lead character, Inspector Chopra, …
Where did the inspiration for Sofia Khan is Not Obliged come from? It was a combination of the absurdity of the Muslim dating scene, my love of Bridget Jones and the fact that there aren’t enough Muslim heroines in literature. The dating book thread actually came from an old colleague at work, and the editorial …
Q. You’ve had a great year. Congratulations! Did it feel good from a writing perspective, or was it distracting? It felt good. My work got into the hands of more readers than it would have done otherwise – that’s a wonderful feeling. But, it’s true: I’ve written nary (a regional word for ‘not’) a word …
Q. What’s the response been like to your collection, Small Hands? Wonderful. Humbling. I think because because the writing travels through elegy, fantasy and uses form it seems as if everyone has his or her favourite poem. Being shortlisted for the Forward Prize for best first collection was a huge honour particularly as it was …
Q. Tell us about the inspiration behind your latest poetry collection, wet silence? I would say there were several inspirations accumulated over the years that inspired “Wet Silence.” But the main was what NovelistChimamanda Adichie’s beautifully shared in one of her Ted Talks: the fear of just one story representing an entire culture. India is a big country and …