The influential Que Leer (What to Read) out of Spain is considered one of the most important literary magazines in Spain and the place for a fresh and provocative slant on all things to do with the written word.  Que Leer interviewed me for their December/January issue on Haunting Bombay, calling it “the infinite sensory universe of Bombay” where not only are “the five senses evoked [but] the sixth too.” Click here for the Que Leer website.  The full interview is attached below where I touch upon the sensory experience of Haunting Bombay, the vibrant sights and sounds of India and the quieter but more evocative senses of smell, taste, and touch.  And, of course, the ethereal, haunting sense of the supernatural.

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Yo Dona, a woman’s magazine from Spain, featured an interview with me under the title “The Magic of India”  I spoke with Yo Dona about the inspiration behind Haunting Bombay, and the array of literary works that have influenced my own writing.  Click here for the full interview.

The first Spanish reviews of my book, Haunting Bombay, are just coming out.  The national newspaper La Razon, titling their review “Best-seller internacional” said this: ”There are writers like Shilpa Agarwal who were born to tell stories, to suggest magical environments, to track and retrieve Proustian smell sensations from lost memories, who can recount the details of an inner world as rich as its culture, both refined and realistic, a mixture of tenderness and cruelty as in ancient Hindu folktales.” Click here for the full article.

The venerable Martinez Roca has just published Haunting Bombay in Spain this month, launching from Madrid with the beautiful title La Casa De Los Aromas Sagrados.  I believe that this is translated as The House of Sacred Scents.  Additional lines on the book cover capture the essence of the book, “The secret of one family….A tale that evokes the magic of Bombay.” Doy las gracias a todo el mundo en Martinez Roca por su incansable dedicación a mi libro!

I just finished judging the annual Katha International Fiction Contest and was impressed by the range and quality of new South Asian writing emerging in the world today.  My co-judge Ronica Bhattacharya is a novelist herself too, and we were a good pair, drawn to different aspects in each of the stories but agreeing on the overall quality of this year’s prize-winners.  Winning stories were published in India Currents magazine and Khabar magazine. Click here for more on the contest.

I was invited by poet and art historian Lisa Vihos to write 3-4 sentences on compassion for the June issue of Inlightenment, a magazine dedicated to nourishing the sacred within.  Scroll down to the “Ask and Receive” section to find my and other perspectives on compassion.  Click here.

It is always moving to me to receive thoughts on my book from a reader in a foreign country, especially one in which I am not officially published.  Here is one forwarded to me from Dublin, Ireland:  ”I have read it and loved it… I couldn’t put it down. The combination of the, well, I don’t know, ‘gothic’? and 60s India combined with such sympathetic, humorous characterizations was wonderfully done, I thought. I even felt sorry for the drunkard son and his horrible wife in the end. And the denouement I didn’t guess for a moment.”

I attended the 7th annual Mystery on the Menu Luncheon at the Cerritos Library on January 29th.  It was a sold-out event of almost two-hundred attendees that mixed and mingled with mystery writers while enjoying a delicious lunch.  Click here for more details. Read the rest of this entry »

Phantom Press has just released the Russian edition of Haunting Bombay with a stunning blue cover featuring a golden sunbird and an intricately red door with a hint of a ghostly presence behind it.  I am grateful to the entire Phantom Press team, including my editor and translator for such a beautiful translation.

This Sunday’s West Hollywood Book Fair was a fantastic afternoon of books, writers, and readings. I was speaking with authors Tatjani Soli, Lucy Bledsloe, Tim Hallinan, and Other Voices Editor-in-Chief Stacy Berlein about the thrills and travails of fiction set in distant lands. It was an amazing journey to Thailand, India, Vietnam, and Antarctica.