Roy is swathed in pale pink linen, draped around her upper body like a sari over rolled up jeans, open-toed sandals and bright red nail varnish she moves with arresting grace, and speaks softly. I hadn’t been sure which voice to expect when we meet in a London hotel to talk about the new novel, The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness. Where the voice in The God Of Small Things was subtle and allusive, her non-fiction writing and political activism have often been criticised as strident in tone, and simplistic.
In 2011, she hinted at a second novel under way, but as the years passed and none materialised, for some it became increasingly implausible to consider Roy a literary writer at all. Winning the Booker prize for The God Of Small Things in 1997. She has not, until now, however, published another word of fiction. She has faced criminal charges of contempt and sedition, been imprisoned, and fled India briefly last year in fear for her life.
To her political fans, she is the radical left voice of principled resistance to her critics, the worst sort of adolescent idealist: unrealistic, self-indulgent. In the 20 years since then, Roy has published dozens of essays and non-fiction books, made documentaries, protested against government corruption, Hindu nationalism, environmental degradation and inequality, campaigned for Kashmiri independence, Maoist rebels and indigenous land rights, and featured on Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
A semi-autobiographical tale of an Indian family fading into decline, fractured by tragedy and scandal, it won the Booker prize, sold more than 8m copies in 42 languages, and transformed an unknown screenwriter into a global celebrity, tipped as the new literary voice of a generation. Is she really a literary figure, or was her first novel a sort of fluke? Roy was 35 when she published her debut, The God Of Small Things, to rapturous acclaim. To many of Roy’s literary admirers, her work over the past 20 years has been something of a puzzle. As soon as I shut the door, it’s, ‘So what did you think of that person? Idiot, right?’” Will she ask them how this interview went after I leave? She looks surprised I’d need to ask. My characters all live with me.” They’re always with her? “Oh yes. “Everyone thinks I live alone, but I don’t. Seeing my expression as she relates this, Roy starts to smile.
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