Arundhati Roy takes utmost care when it comes to crafting her stories

Arundhati Roy tells Sue Leonard why it took 20 years to write her second novel after her Booker Prize win with her first. She was talking to her characters all that time she explains

THERE are writers who plan their novels down to a tee; who believe they are God, deciding exactly how their characters will act; there are those whose plans are looser — and who declare constant surprise at the direction and decisions their invented cast make — and then there’s Arundhati Roy.

The 55-year-old from Delhi, whose debut famously won the Man Booker Prize back in 1997, becomes so enmeshed with her characters, that, it is said, she consulted them before deciding which publisher to go with. When asked what she thought of reviews at her London launch, she said that her characters might have something to say in reply to harsh critics.