In a sentiment that echoes Toni Morrison’s writing advice from a 1981 speech, journalist Deepanjana Pal wrote the book she wanted to read. Pal’s new novel Lightning in a Shot Glass (HarperCollins India) traces a moment in the lives of two smart and funny women, who are flatmates in Bandra, and are steering through the complexities of living in present-day Mumbai. Meera is a 40-year-old political editor at a newspaper called The Daily, and is going through a mid-life crisis. Aalo (Aloukika) is a 29-year-old on a journey of finding a sense of self. Having been something of a sex educator on ‘desi internet’ for a few years, she now works at an NGO which empowers young girls through education. Pal reveals that she struggled to find a novel about “an India that a lot of us recognise around us”, but which is written in a tone that’s “funny and uplifting and somehow, doesn’t make light of the darkness, but isn’t consumed by it.” Her novel achieves all of this.

Deepanjana Pal