On Monday Akhil Sharma’s Family Life won the Folio Prize. As publishers we feel happy about every author’s victory, but this one felt extra special.
Akhil had wrung out his novel from his childhood and one incident in particular – his brother’s accident – which had scarred and shaped his entire family. It had taken many years, many attempts to distill the tragedy into art. As his agent Bill Clegg put it to me in an email, “it’s been a long haul”.
The choice
But I knew none of this when I bought the novel almost two years ago. Ananth, my head of sales, had returned from Book Expo America and told me that the corridors of the BEA were buzzing about a novel by an Indian called Akhil Sharma.
I had read Sharma’s first novel An Obedient Father many years ago – another spare, dark novel that had received great notices abroad though not in India – and was curious. I wrote off to his agent and begged him not to show the novel to any other publisher before I had a chance to see it. Ananth is a wonderful partner in moments like this – we read the book and decided we had to publish it and bought it as fast as we could before it could be submitted elsewhere.
The cover
The cover came very easily. I had wanted an image that centred on the little boy who was watching his family fall apart. I didn’t want a clever jacket, or something that was type-led. I wanted it to focus on the human story.
It felt to me that this was a book not just for lovers of serious fiction but for anyone who wanted to read about the nature of families, and the ways in which we deal with tragedy. So photographic, a boy on the front. A still, strong image. Later one of Akhil’s European publishers picked it up as well.
The endorsements
We had great early quotes from writers like Mohsin Hamid and Kiran Desai. By luck I discovered that Jonathan Franzen had raved about the book to Anindita Ghosh at Vogue India during their interview at JLF.
We wrote off to him begging him to let us use the quote – the interview was going to be featured in May, the month Family Life was published, but Anindita very kindly fed me the interview before the article came out. Franzen never blurbs books but made an exception since it was part of an interview.
The writer
By the time May came we were set. We had a superb book, great early notices, a strong jacket. Having a willing author to help with the publicity is the next ingredient. Akhil is a quiet, thoughtful, polite man but there’s a steeliness and watching intelligence below the surface.
You weren’t going to find him getting over-emotional about his book and he could be as open as you wanted him to be. Most writers aren’t like this, especially ones with a story like Akhil’s. I’ve had a writer who threw up before her interviews because the story was so close to her.
One of the things the US publisher did was get him to write a lot of biographical pieces for magazines around publication – we got Akhil to do one for The Times of India on whether Indians grieve differently. It’s a really interesting piece for anyone who hasn’t read it.
Publishing
Family Life was published in USA, UK and India to rapturous reviews. The New York Times called it one of the top ten books of the year. The Hindu said it was “cut, honed and polished to such perfection that every word glitters”.
It was shortlisted for the Tata Prize, made it to the best books of the year on a bunch of round ups in the Indian press. And now the Folio Prize. I haven’t seen Akhil in a while but I wonder how he feels now, at the end of this long journey. He has said in his interviews how painful it has been for him. He couldn’t have foreseen the victories that were to come. But they have come, and I am delighted and proud.
Chiki Sarkar is Publisher, Penguin Random House India.
Akhil had wrung out his novel from his childhood and one incident in particular – his brother’s accident – which had scarred and shaped his entire family. It had taken many years, many attempts to distill the tragedy into art. As his agent Bill Clegg put it to me in an email, “it’s been a long haul”.
The choice
But I knew none of this when I bought the novel almost two years ago. Ananth, my head of sales, had returned from Book Expo America and told me that the corridors of the BEA were buzzing about a novel by an Indian called Akhil Sharma.
I had read Sharma’s first novel An Obedient Father many years ago – another spare, dark novel that had received great notices abroad though not in India – and was curious. I wrote off to his agent and begged him not to show the novel to any other publisher before I had a chance to see it. Ananth is a wonderful partner in moments like this – we read the book and decided we had to publish it and bought it as fast as we could before it could be submitted elsewhere.
The cover
The cover came very easily. I had wanted an image that centred on the little boy who was watching his family fall apart. I didn’t want a clever jacket, or something that was type-led. I wanted it to focus on the human story.
It felt to me that this was a book not just for lovers of serious fiction but for anyone who wanted to read about the nature of families, and the ways in which we deal with tragedy. So photographic, a boy on the front. A still, strong image. Later one of Akhil’s European publishers picked it up as well.
The endorsements
We had great early quotes from writers like Mohsin Hamid and Kiran Desai. By luck I discovered that Jonathan Franzen had raved about the book to Anindita Ghosh at Vogue India during their interview at JLF.
We wrote off to him begging him to let us use the quote – the interview was going to be featured in May, the month Family Life was published, but Anindita very kindly fed me the interview before the article came out. Franzen never blurbs books but made an exception since it was part of an interview.
The writer
By the time May came we were set. We had a superb book, great early notices, a strong jacket. Having a willing author to help with the publicity is the next ingredient. Akhil is a quiet, thoughtful, polite man but there’s a steeliness and watching intelligence below the surface.
You weren’t going to find him getting over-emotional about his book and he could be as open as you wanted him to be. Most writers aren’t like this, especially ones with a story like Akhil’s. I’ve had a writer who threw up before her interviews because the story was so close to her.
One of the things the US publisher did was get him to write a lot of biographical pieces for magazines around publication – we got Akhil to do one for The Times of India on whether Indians grieve differently. It’s a really interesting piece for anyone who hasn’t read it.
Publishing
Family Life was published in USA, UK and India to rapturous reviews. The New York Times called it one of the top ten books of the year. The Hindu said it was “cut, honed and polished to such perfection that every word glitters”.
It was shortlisted for the Tata Prize, made it to the best books of the year on a bunch of round ups in the Indian press. And now the Folio Prize. I haven’t seen Akhil in a while but I wonder how he feels now, at the end of this long journey. He has said in his interviews how painful it has been for him. He couldn’t have foreseen the victories that were to come. But they have come, and I am delighted and proud.
Chiki Sarkar is Publisher, Penguin Random House India.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!