With seven novels to his credit, Mumbai-based author, Novoneel Chakraborty, known for his Stranger Trilogy, has recently launched his next book, Black Suits You, which takes inspiration from his life as an author, and a mysterious reader of his. During his visit to the city for the launch, Novoneel spills the beans on what he has in store for his readers with this title.
To our question on where he took the inspiration for this book from, the author says, “Black Suits You is a fictional tale that follows a best-selling author of an erotica trilogy, Kiyan Roy, who visits different cities to promote his books. He spots a mysterious girl who follows him across cities to all the events. The author tries to figure out if the girl has an agenda. I came about with this story line, when, during my previous book launches, I had this particular reader who was there in three different cities. Each time she would tell me that her uncle, or some brother, stayed in that city. I felt she wasn’t telling the truth. This was when I had the idea to write about a mysterious reader.”
Cover of the book
The genre of Black Suits You, as Novoneel terms it carefully, is a psychosexual thriller. “I wanted to call it a psychosexual thriller because the book is not about sex, but the seduction process. The idea behind it was also that I wanted to move away from the word ‘erotica’, because every time an Indian author writes a book on erotica, I’ve observed the response to such books hasn’t been very great — with the readers becoming quite judgmental. There seems to be some perception that erotica can be written well only by foreign authors. For example, if Fifty Shades of Grey was written by an Indian, I don’t think it would have sold so well,” Novoneel believes, adding that India doesn’t seem to be ready to read anything on sex for the way it is, just yet.
The writer says that over years of writing commercial fiction, he has learnt to keep the balance right in order to reach the masses — of offering equal excitement for a voracious reader, as well as for a first-timer.
“I am planning another trilogy series after this. It’s an intense love story between an 18-year-old girl and a 32-year-old man and what makes that an impossible love story,” he says, signing off.
