'The only way to deal with tragedy is to laugh at it'
Indra Sinha, shortlisted for this year's Man Booker prize for Animal's People, explains the story behind his novel Indra Sinha: 'I don't insist that writers have a duty to change things'.
Author photograph: Guardian/Martin Godwin
Khaufpur, the city in which your novel is set, is a thinly disguised representation of the Indian city of Bhopal, which suffered one of the world's worst industrial disasters in 1984 when a pesticide plant released over 40 tonnes of poisonous gas. Did you write Animal's People in order to help the world remember its victims?
"You think books should change things," the Kakadu jarnalis tells Animal. "So do I. When you speak, talk straight to the people who'll read your words. If you tell the truth from the heart, they will listen."
"You think books should change things," the Kakadu jarnalis tells Animal. "So do I. When you speak, talk straight to the people who'll read your words. If you tell the truth from the heart, they will listen."
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