Quick Fire Interview with Anu Kumar

In an isolated, small hill station called Brooks Town, Gautam Dogra is murdered one quiet afternoon. The crime scene is untainted, but the murder weapon is missing. Even so, the police dismiss it as a simple case and jail the= convict. Everyone but Charlotte Hyde makes their peace with this event, for Charlotte knows that this murder did not happen in a day or in isolation. As the story unfolds, secrets unearth and hidden identities are revealed. The reader realises that it is not just the story of a man’s death, but of love, loss, desperation, fury and vengeance all taking place amidst political tension and wars.
It Takes a Murder is a complex tale of a town, its people and its events which lead to Gautam Dogra’s murder. The story darts between several characters, themes and times which make it hard to follow for almost half the book. The narrative doesn’t help much either. It is only in the second half that things start coming together. And it is not exactly a light read either. Yet, It Takes a Murder is worth a read for the second half. The secrets revealed are oddly amusing and do justice to the story.

You do a lot of other writing – children’s books, articles, anthologies, poems, etc. Which is the toughest? And which one do you like the best?
This is honestly difficult to answer. Any kind of writing demands a lot. I like writing stuff that demands research, or if its fiction, getting under the skin of a character, digging up a person’s history or even creating it anew. Making something new of the ordinary, or telling [it] in a uniquely different way, is always a challenge.

Who or what inspires your writing?
Anything from newspaper headlines to eavesdropping on conversations. Even a line from someone else’s novel or a character another writer has forgotten about or mercilessly ignored. There are stories everywhere, the trick is to know how to tell them.

Is any instance or character in ‘It Takes a Murder’ that is influenced by a real-life incident or person?
Not really. There was this place I sort of knew and some people who could only belong here, so I fitted them to situations where only they could emerge as complicated, conflicted beings, and also very believable, or so I hope. – Sindhu Mansukhani

GETTING TO KNOW HARUKI MURAKAMI

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer of fiction and non-fiction who has been called “among the world’s greatest living novelists”

HIS THEMES
Human disconnect, alienation, magical realism, dreams
RECOMMENDED FOR
those who daydream often and tend to get lost in novels
READING SHELF
Kafka on the Shore: the spectacular journey of a 15-year-old boy named Kafka, and Mr Nakata
Norwegian Wood: a heart-tugging story of adolescent love and its giddy rush
1Q84: an epic about an assassin and the mysterious connection she shares with a man
TRIVIA
*Ran a jazz club to support his writing
* Baseball inspired his first novel
*Likes doppelgangers
*The appearance of cats in his books indicates that something strange is about to happen

BOOKS THAT SHOULD BE MOVIES

WHERE RAINBOWS END
by Cecelia Ahern
Genre: Romance
Plot: Rosie and Alex are best friends who grew up sharing each moment of their lives. The book spans over 50 years and traces the story of how they find love in each other, despite a life of failed marriages, changing jobs and children, proving true love has no age.
Starring: We pick Colin Farrell and his alluring Irish accent for Alex, and Jennifer Aniston for Rosie.

THE SUMMONS
by John Grisham
Genre: Legal drama
Plot: Newly divorced Ray and his brother, Forrest, are summoned to go visit their ailing father at his estate to discuss his will. Forrest’s absence and their father’s sudden demise leads Ray to follow a trail of three million dollars, which is unaccounted for. But is he the only one who knows about it? Apparently not.
Starring: Robert Downey Jr. could take a break from playing wise-cracking action characters and slip into the role of the serious and thoughtful Ray.