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That Summer in Paris
by Abha Dawesar
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Our Price Rs. 265.50
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*USD 5.40
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In a Woody Allen film Deconstructing Harry, the sad isolated curmudgeon protagonist played by Allen has a moment in the end when characters from his various works come alive. They love him unconditionally even though real people in his life have found him impossible. In a touching scene he tells them how he loves them too. After I wrote That Summer in Paris I saw Allen’s movie again and it had all the poignancy it did the first time and then some. Even more than my other novels, the characters in That Summer in Paris became real for me. Prem and Pascal became almost living breathing entities. In the world in which I live, Prem is often a person who exists. I walk down a street in Paris sometime and think, Oh! He walked right here that day with Pascal! To my readers I hope to convey exactly this, a short of fleshiness in the characters of the book that make them real.
I know that this novel is a major departure from my last novel Babyji that was, to many people, daring, adventurous and a voice not often heard in Indian writing. It is inevitable that people - and here I include those in contemporary publishing not just readers - expect a writer to continue down a path predicated by earlier work. Stylistically as well as thematically That Summer in Paris is very different, in part because I was grappling with what it is to be a writer after I had published two books and partly because the protagonist of the novel is old. My last two novels were in a certain sense coming-of-age novels whereas this one is really about looking back at life.
From a literary point of view my stylistic choices are always determined by the content of the book. This is why my first novel The Three of Us set in Manhattan has a fast, almost staccato tempo to capture the rhythm of being in a New York taxicab. With Prem and Maya both being writers who are visiting Paris, the language of the third novel is different, at moments it borders on old-fashioned and for briefer moments on lurid. The purpose is always to capture Prem’s nature, his complexity and the fact that he has lived through a world that has changed, while trying his best to keep with the times remaining honest with himself and his darker side.
My constant hope with my readers is of course that they will trust me and make the journey of the book with me despite the large variation in themes, which I envisage will continue. My next novel is very different from the three that have been published. It is about a young boy for whom daily life is tangible in a way that it simply can’t be for adults. Living in a world of grownups he spends his time in observation. The language of that book is pared to fit with his perspective and his story.
Prem Rustum, a celebrated aging Indian novelist, unexpectedly meets Maya, a vibrant aspiring writer, and surprises himself by following her to Paris.
In the slow, sensuous summer that follows, Prem looks back on his muses,
his art, and his lost loves. Maya's presence brings Prem into direct
confrontation with his mortality and desires. As he struggles anew with the
eternal question of love, Prem's longstanding friendship with Pascal, a
fellow writer, illuminates them both in the final chapter of their lives.
Written with sureness of style and tempo, That Summer in Paris reflects on how art informs love-and love, literature. With elegance and humor and even heartbreak, Abha Dawesar delivers a novel at once seductive and
contemplative.
Babyji
Sexy, surprising, and subversively wise, Babyji is the story of Anamika
Sharma, a spirited student growing up in Delhi. At school she is an ace at
quantum physics. At home she sneaks off to her parents' scooter garage to
read the Kamasutra. Before long she has seduced an elegant older divorcee
and the family servant, and has caught the eye of a classmate coveted by
all the boys. With the world of adulthood dancing before her, Anamika
confronts questions that would test someone twice her age. Ebullient,
unfettered, and introducing one of the most charming heroines in
contemporary fiction, Babyji is irresistible.
The Three of Us
Climbing the corporate ladder has never been easier-or more exhausting. Sex becomes Andrz's obsession after his handsome supervisor Nathan beds the ambitious young executive-in-waiting. Enter Sybil, Nathan's sensual wife, who stakes her own claim on Andrz, with neither husband nor wife aware of the other's involvement. With only a trusted miniplanner to aid him in balancing the intricate timetable of his cosmopolitan life, Andrz juggles
business and pleasure in comic combinations.
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