Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Couple of writers

What happens when both husband and wife become novelists? You might say this is nothing new. You might even give some examples to prove your point. But I find it interesting.

I am talking about two relatively new writers here.

Melanie Abrams, wife of Indian author Vikram Chandra, has debuted with a novel on love and sadomasochism.It is called Playing.

Maria Giovanna writes about Abrams in Mint:

I ask Abrams—whose spouse is the acclaimed Indian writer Vikram Chandra—if she felt the whole subcontinent looking over her shoulder as she wrote an admittedly “gritty” story. She laughs and recalls urging her agent to pursue selling the novel in India as well as the usual markets (the US and UK). Then, reality hit. Says Abrams: “I thought, ‘I must be out of my mind. What was I thinking? My in-laws, my sisters-in-law, everyone is going to read the book now!’” But, she calmly asserts: “I am proud of it. I am not ashamed or worried.”

More

Also, Anuradha Roy, herself an editor/publisher, and married to famous publisher Rukun Advani (Permanent Black, author of the novel, Beethoven among the cows) has come out with her first novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing:

Deftly and sensitively narrated, this first novel is the story of three generations of a Bengali family and Mukunda, the illegitimate child of a tribal woman, who became from the age of six a part of their lives. The events span the first 50 years of the 20th century; and in the three sections of the book, the last spoken by Mukunda, the narrative is punctuated with key dates which link loosely the family's history with that of modern India.

1 comment:

monideepa sahu said...

Hmm, looks like writing, or at least getting writing published and widely appreciated, runs in the family in both cases. Thanks for drawing our attention to these interesting new arrivals.