Geet Chaturvedi’s novel, Simsim, translated from the Hindi by Anita Gopalan has been longlisted for the 2023 JCB Prize for Literature. Scroll spoke to Chaturvedi and Gopalan about the origins, themes, and writing and translating of this novel.

In Simsim, old Basar Mal remembers his love and homeland that he lost in Sindh, Pakistan during the Partition. A young graduate gets into an imaginary relationship with a girl at a yellow window. The Mumbai land mafia is after Basar Mal and his library. A chatty book cover relates the plight of books. A silent Mangan’s ma washes and feeds a plastic doll she thinks is her son. Simsim is a struggle between memory, imagination, and reality – an exquisitely crafted book that fuses the voices of remarkable yet relatable characters to weave a tale of seeking happiness, fulfilling passion, and reconciling with loss.