"I tend to write novels which are topical but which also are related to a deeper social problem. While I have put all the 'masala' of a good novel into 'Origins of Love', the underlying narrative deals with the exploitation of women and their bodies in a rapidly growing industry," she says about her book which tells about surrogacy and IVF and how topical the issue is both in India and abroad.
"Surrogacy is rapidly growing in India and in the absence of a proper law, women are being used not just by the doctors but also by their own families to have children for other couples for a few lakhs of rupees," Desai told PTI.
She says these are often "desperately poor women: it seems like another form of colonialisation, or even human trafficking - but it is dressed up as something else - something more noble".
She dealt with female foeticide and infanticide in India in her award-winning Witness the Night, the first of the Simran Singh trilogy. In "Origins of Love", Simran is asked to investigate the case of a newly born child, Amelia, whose British parents have died in a tragic but mysterious accident in Rajasthan. Amelia's "birth" mother is a surrogate who has also disappeared and Simran decides to find out why no one seems to want the orphan. MORE
