The Early Bloomer

Joseph has been compared with novelist Amit Chaudhuri,who incidentally heads creative writing at the University of East Anglia,where Joseph completed her post-graduation in 2008. “He is one of the three writers whose work I admire the most,” she says over the phone from London,“the other two being RK Narayan and Upamanyu Chatterjee.” The Telegraph’s list,where Joseph appears alongside Zadie Smith Scarlett Thomas and Sarah Hall and the other Indian on the list Rana Dasgupta,is meant to counter The New Yorker’s list of 20 writers under 40. “It was slightly surreal,totally unexpected,but it feels great. I’m not quite sure how my book made it to the list. It’s a mystery to me and my editor Mark Richards of Fourth Estate. He said it might become one of the 20 books to watch out for this summer,” says Joseph.

Joseph’s novel is set in her hometown Mumbai. The protagonist Mohan is a 50-something letter writer who sits outside the Mumbai GPO and is interested in second-hand books from the Flora Fountain. In his house in a suburban colony,he’s soon joined by his nephew,Ashish,a diffident,sexually uncertain 19-year-old.

Though the heightened literary status can be frightening,she is unfazed. “I am not really worried about that and anyway,it’s too late to run back,” says Joseph,whose writer’s desk is the laptop propped up on her bed.

The novel is published in India by HarperCollins.