In an essay about his writing process, the author explained how he threw out his outline while researching a novel in his hometown. The book club package also includes video material, a novel excerpt, and his answers readers’ questions. Earlier this week, the longlist for the 2009 Man Booker Prize was announced.
Check it out: “This seemed like a new challenge: to learn about the invisible majority of Mangalore, and write about their struggles and joys. To write a book that would be truer to my hometown than my childhood was. Too much of Indian writing in English, it seemed to me, consisted of middle-class people writing about other middle-class people–and a small slice of life being passed off as an ‘authentic’ portrait of the country.”