She has been compared to Jhumpa Lahiri, and now author SELINA SEN has charmed European audiences as well. Sen’s debut novel, A Mirror Greens in Spring, has just been translated into French, Italian and Spanish and gathered significant international acclaim — two years after its release in India. In Italy, the pod-cast version of the story, about an immigrant Bengali family living in Delhi, is a hit, while, in France, a pocket-book version has just been formalised. Her European success has much to do with the readers’ curiosity about the subcontinent, she tells NEHA BHATT
What do you think appealed to European readers about your book?
Love, loss, longing, displacement, betrayal and retribution — these elements have a universal appeal, whatever the language. Readers in Italy have been attracted to the character of Dida, a strong mother figure, because, as one TV interviewer in Italy put it, “Dida is my mother… the way she controls the family through the kitchen.” Descriptions of Bengali cuisine were a hit there too because in Italy — like in Bengal — food sustains the soul. In France, where it has been published only this April, the novel has been praised for its depiction of strife in the subcontinent. Incidents with the backdrop of the Partition, the 1984 riots, and the LTTE conflict have helped the French reader understand the subcontinent, and Bengali culture, better. In Spain, descriptions of Delhi have been appreciated. I had wonderful translators in each case.
Issues of identity and displacement are popular with authors. Why did you choose these?
Both my reading as well as my maternal family’s experience of displacement from Mymensingh to north India after Partition propelled this theme. While reading the stories of diasporic authors, I felt that the alienation experienced by such characters was less painful than those who were compelled to resettle in regions where not only was the language and social milieu foreign, but where they could not even exercise a choice.
You write of the Bengali immigrant life and you have been compared with Jhumpa Lahiri...
Yes, a reviewer with a national newspaper compared me to her when the book first came out. But, I think, apart from the sense of displacement and the Bengali background, there isn’t that much resemblance between our writings. Of course, it’s a huge compliment. The comparison made with my work, I must add, was to The Namesake, but I have always preferred her short stories. I do envy her deft hand with irony, but I must add that my story has a faster pace.
The book you are now working on is set in Kashmir and New Delhi. Tell us about it.
I spent two years in the Valley when my army-officer father was posted there just before trouble began in 1989. I have always loved delving into the reasons behind change and I could have chosen no greater period of flux than to try and depict Kashmir at the eve of a revolution. It is a very complex background and I have been travelling to the Valley for the last two years for research. I am three quarters through and am quite excited about the way it is progressing.
Since the time you wrote your first book, what has changed around you as a writer? How will that reflect in your new book?
This is a difficult question. I think the line between diasporic writers and those based here is blurring a bit. I also think diasporic authors have access to the huge publicity machinery of foreign publishers, and, therefore, have an easier time, sales-wise, once they are signed on. If you are published in the West, especially in the UK, you are received better at home. As far as Indian writing today goes, I am happy that references to Indian popular culture do not have to be explained in parentheses or italics any longer.
As for my own writing, I do enjoy an action-packed tale, but at the same time, I also understand the importance of sensibilities that might motivate a character.
A MIRROR GREENS IN SPRING
Author: SELINA SEN
PUBLISHER: Roli
Pages: 316
Price: Rs 295