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It was 16 years ago that I wrestled with the 1350 page hardback that was, Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy. The soap opera went on for a good six month during which time Mrs Rupa Mehra and Lata became very much a part of our family. I, somehow, did not sprain my wrists, but it was impossible to read the book in bed. Now Lata is a grandmother whose grandson is all grown up and she is looking for a suitable girl for him. A Suitable Girl is to be published in 2013 by Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin

Everyone knows the story of how A Suitable Boy created history with the US$1.1 million advance it received from Indian, British and American publishers. The 1,350-page book sold over a quarter of a million copies in hardback and over a million in paperback.

Seth says that his publishers had been after him for years to write a sequel but he hadn’t felt inspired enough. He is happy, however, that the muse has returned. He adds that the story has progressed quite a bit in his head, though not as much on paper.

But if Lata was nineteen years old in the 1950s, would she be over seventy now?


Times of India
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