anuradha roy

A tranquil beach town named Jarmuli is the setting of Anuradha Roy’s third novel, Sleeping on Jupiter, which won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and made the longlist for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. Four older women travel as friends in search of a bucolic vacation, and a young woman, contending with the trauma of her past, finds her stay in Jarmuli tied with theirs. Roy braids the narrative threads of these and other characters together to create a butterfly stitch that examines personal trauma, a national epidemic of violence, and the ways in which power is used to injure. The prose is deft and powerful, the resort town beautifully rendered, the turmoil bubbling underneath terrifyingly realized. Roy and I corresponded over email to discuss the book, the nature of violence, and the craft of storytelling. (Read it here in The Rumpus) *** The Rumpus: Could you talk about your choice of s...

I was born in Calcutta (as it was called then) yet by some quirk of fate, I've never done a book event there, not even a bookshop reading. So this is very exciting. The complete programme of the festival is here . It runs from 25th to 29th January. All the events are at the Victoria Memorial, a spectacular setting. It will be balmy and sunny and festive at this time of year.  No passes are required, all the events are free.