NEW DELHI, June 15:
Pakistan author Sabyn Javeri, who has just come out with a political whodunit on a former Prime Minister’s assassination, says India is a fabulous platform for writers from her country.
Javeri’s debut novel “Nobody Killed Her” is about love, loyalty, obsession and deception and is set against a backdrop of intrigue and political machinations.
It is a tale of intense friendship between two ambitious women – Prime Minister Rani Shah and her close confidante Nazneen Khan or Nazo Khan – and unfolds in a country steeped in fanaticism and patriarchy.
The book was first supposed to be published in the UK but things did not work out for Javeri. And then, to her relief, an Indian agent helped her and finally her book was published by HarperCollins India.
She terms the Indian publishing industry as a great platform for Pakistani writers.
“Indian publishing industry is doing a fabulous job for authors, particularly for those from Pakistan. The publishers don’t care about your nationality, your gender or your age. All they care is that the story has to be good,” Javeri, who was in India recently, said.
“I feel there is a lot of interest in India about Pakistani authors and their works and people of both the countries share a lot in common,” she says.
This was her second visit to India, the first being in 2007 for an event on the invitation of writer-publisher Ritu Menon.
Recalling some of the difficult times she faced initially in getting her book published, Javeri says, “When I first began this novel, I started blogging about it. So an editor in London got in touch with me on Facebook and later offered to publish it. I was elated. However, when the novel was in its finishing stages of production, they realised that they could not publish it.”
“The editor also quit and my agent left and I had a difficult time, disappointed and dejected feeling that it’s not going to happen,” she says.
Then she came back to Karachi and subsequently got in touch with an Indian literary agent.
“I got a positive feedback and then I decided to rewrite my novel. I decided to make it Nazo Khan’s story. That created a lot of interest and looked more publishable,” she says.
“Many publishers evinced interest in my book and finally I chose Harper because they had done political novels before,” she says.
Her next project will be a book of short stories titled “Hijabistan” on the theme of the hijab or the veil which is used as a metaphor. (PTI)
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