Summary: Hello and welcome to You Wrote The Book, a book based podcast hosted by Simon Savidge. Each fortnight over the coming months he will be joined by a special guest author to discuss their life as a writer and as a reader, from the current novel they have published to the first book they read and everything in between. Simon’s guest for this episode is Neel Mukherjee. Neel first came to many readers attention with his debut novel A Life Apart, a tale of a young man from Calcutta growing up in England knowing he is different in more ways than one, in 2010. Neel returned last year with The Lives of Others a sprawling novel which looks at a family in the India of the late 1960’s when the Naxalite movement started its violent uprising. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker last year. Simon caught up with Neel to discuss the The Lives of Others, where the idea came from and how he went about creating a novel that encompasses a whole country in one particular time both in the political and the domestic. They also discuss the Man Booker, the state of Indian fiction in the UK, why he is adverse to the term ‘family saga’ and why his novels, so far, have been so very different. Over the next few episodes Simon will be joined by Laline Paull, Jessie Burton and Tess Gerritsen. If you have any questions for the authors, would like to suggest authors you think Simon should be getting on the show, or simply want to have a natter about books, you can email youwrotethebook@gmail.com or find us on twitter @youwrotethebook. If you want to hear Simon talking more books do join him every other week with Thomas Otto on The Readers Podcast, you can also find him chatting and reviewing book on his blog Savidge Reads. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes where you can find previous episodes with Rose Tremain, Christos Tsiolkas, Evie Wyld, Armistead Maupin, David Nicholls, Joanne Harris, Richard Flanagan, Kamila Shamsie, Maggie O’Farrell and many more.
