Anuradha Roy finds solitude in the Kumaon Himalayas

NEW DELHI: Living far from the madding crowds in the cantonment town of Ranikhet in the Kumaon Himalayas that provides her solitude, "it's hard to believe" the number of distant readers her books have found, says Anuradha Roy, whose novel, "All The Lives We Never Lived" has been shortlisted for the 100,000 euros (Rs 86 lakh) International Dublin Literary Award 2020, the world's richest for a single work of fiction published in English.

"I've been writing ever since I could form words. It's always been something I need to do," Roy said in an interview, adding: "Living and writing in a remote Himalayan town, it's hard to believe the number of faraway readers the books have found. That is the most gratifying thing about prize lists."

"We moved here (to Ranikhet) 20 years ago and our daily interactions are with our three dogs and our neighbours who are mostly from the neighbouring villages. It is because both my partner and I need solitude and open spaces that we live here," Roy elaborated.

It is this solitude that has seen Roy author four novels — "An Atlas of Impossible Longing" (2008), "The Folded Earth" (2011), "Sleeping on Jupiter" (2015) and "All The Lives We Never Lived" (2018).

Between them, these novels have won three awards and have been cited for eight others, including the present one.

"All The Lives We Never Lived" (Hachette) is the story of men and women trapped in a dangerous era uncannily similar to the present, its scale matched by its power as a parable for our times. It won the 2018 Tata Book of the Year Award for Fiction. It also made the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize and the shortlists for the JCB Fiction Prize and The Hindu Literary Prize and the present one. (IANS)

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