NEW DELHI: Playwright and television writer Nayantara Roy explores family, identity and the migrant experience in her debut novel, “Magnificent Ruins,” released in India on Sunday.
Having received widespread critical acclaim globally, the book, published by Hatchett India, is a sweeping multi-generational saga set between Brooklyn and Kolkata.
The film follows Laila Dee, a Brooklyn-based book editor, whose carefully constructed life in New York is turned upside down by a call from her mother in India. On the brink of professional success, Laila learns that she has inherited her family’s sprawling estate in Kolkata, a lineage she decisively abandoned 16 years ago.
Her return to the city brings her to a charged encounter with her mother and the volatile gravity of her extended family. As if the emotional terrain wasn’t treacherous enough, her first love resurfaces the moment she arrives, while her author boyfriend seeks to redefine their relationship.
“Caught between the life she painstakingly built and the life she escaped, Laila begins to feel that long-buried family secrets are being undone. Written with uncommon verve and verve, The Magnificent Ruins is masterful storytelling by one of the most exciting voices of our time,” reads the book description.
Reflecting on the origins of the novel, Roy, who is originally from India and now resides in Los Angeles, said the idea arose from an essay she wrote in graduate school for a class called “Secrets of Others.”
“It rushed out of me in one sitting because that’s how dams burst and ‘fantastic monuments’ come into being… I set the novel in a world I knew intimately, and proceeded to invent the rest.
“I hope the reader will not only be persuaded by, but also excavate, the universal truth of generational trauma through the lens of the specific Bengali culture and the incredible, hopeful work it takes for these cycles to finally begin to unravel,” she added.
A daytime television executive, Roy currently serves as Senior Vice President of Television at Sandbox Entertainment, where she acquires and develops original scripted series.
Her television career included supervising such popular shows as “Normal People,” “Nine Perfect Strangers,” “Mary & George,” “The Hunting Wives” and “Outlander.”
“Wonderful effects” at a price $899, available for purchase via online and offline stores.
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