Deepa Anappara

The Sunday Salon with Alice-Azania Jarvis

Deepa Anappara's novel Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line was one of the most hotly anticipated debuts of the year. Set in a slum on the outskirts of an unnamed Indian city, it centres on nine year old, cop-show obsessed Jai and his two best friends, who go looking for local children who’ve gone missing. It has won rave reviews from critics and high praise from Ian McEwan who described it as ‘brilliant’. Not that Deepa is aware of this - she told me she was too nervous to read any of the reviews. Perhaps this has to do with the controversy that Indian writers writing in English often face - namely, the idea that they are pandering to stereotypes of India, or romanticising poverty or even appropriating others' experiences. Our discussion of this was one of many things I found fascinating in our conversation, which also took in Deepa's career as an award-winning reporter in India, her habit of waking at 5.30am to write, the benefit of studying creative writing, and more. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Twitter: @aliceazania
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Buy the book here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/djinn-patrol-on-the-purple-line/deepa-anappara/9781784743086
Edited by Chelsey Moore