To be continued

Perhaps,Mitchell wasn’t prepared for a literary indulgence. Perhaps some novels are unique—the end comes with a finality for the characters,never to see the light of the day. But a breed of present-day writers believes in resurrection. Sometimes on popular demand,at other times,for a taste of the old wine in a new bottle. Mukul Deva,a year after the success of racy Lashkar,has recently launched its sequel,Salim Must Die. Like Lashkar,the story revolves around terrorism. “My intention was to throw light on the various aspects of terrorism. It’s too vast a subject to be dealt with in one book,” says Deva.

Advaita Kala did some advanced planning. She had started work on the sequel by the time Almost Single released. “The reason had nothing to do with the success of the book. Quite simply,I wasn’t really done with the characters and telling their stories,so I had to keep going,” she says. Most of the Almost Single characters will and some more will debut in her next,tentatively titled Almost There. Deva too retains his main characters for Salim Must Die. “However,unlike Lashkar,it is set in 10 different countries. It was a real task putting the plot together since I was dealing with 10 different time zones,” he adds.

Qaisra Shahraz too,seems besotted by her characters. The UK-based author,who recently launched her books Fated to Love and Love’s Fury in India,feels she “was too much in love with the characters and the setting” of her first book. She “carried them over to the second book”. For Amitav Ghosh,it was a grand epic to be played out in the Ibis trilogy,right from the start. With the plot spanning 200 years,a single tome falls short. After Sea of Poppies,its much-awaited sequel is likely to be out in 2010-end. The vastness of a project is also the reason for Amruta Patil to break her next work Parva into two or three parts. “The first part should be ready to meet people sometime in 2010,” says the graphic novelist. Her first book Kari had ended with a “to be continued” triggering hopes of a sequel,which Patil is not planning “anytime soon”. “The ‘to be continued’ is as much a promise that Kari’s (central character of he book) life continues,” she explains.

Riding high on the popularity of the original works,sequels may find instant market,but a long shelf-life depends on its literary quality. That’s proven by the dismal fate of Scarlet,Alexandra Ripley’s sequel of Gone with the Wind,in the early ’90s. Another instance of a disappointing follow-up is Edge of Reason,which unlike its predecessor,Bridget Jones’ Diary,failed to impress and humour. .

Kala doesn’t seem to be bothered by these failures. “I’m a risk-taker. Also,I don’t take the success of the first book for granted or seriously. I hope to tell a better story with the next one,be a better writer,” says the author.

Deva doesn’t see risk in a sequel but finds the task of writing one difficult. “It is very difficult,especially when you want to take the bar up higher with each successive book,” says the army-man-turned-author. He has almost finished his third,The Dust Will Never Settle and starting work on the fourth book in the series Tanzim.