Sharma's second novel, Family Life, took more than 12 years to write. Telling the story of a family wrought by tragedy, it mirrors his own harrowing story
'It took 12-and-a-half years and I can't believe how bad that time was," says Akhil Sharma. "I was such a different person when I began writing it that I feel as if I've shattered my youth on this book. I still find it hard to believe that it's over, and I have this constant fear that I need to go and sit at my computer." Sharma is talking about his second novel, Family Life, which is published in the UK next week. It tells the autobiographical story of a family's emigration from India to the US in the late 1970s, and how an accident that left the elder son severely brain-damaged brought them close to collapse.
The book has already been published to much acclaim in the US – "Deeply unnerving and gorgeously tender at its core" said the New York Times – matching the praise Sharma received when he emerged in the late 90s with prize-winning short stories and then a 2001 debut novel, An Obedient Father, which won the PEN/Hemingway award. But the positive response to Family Life still feels "almost as unreal as the book being done," he says. The intervening period of silence – although he was named on Granta's 2007 list of best young American writers – has not been easy.
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The book has already been published to much acclaim in the US – "Deeply unnerving and gorgeously tender at its core" said the New York Times – matching the praise Sharma received when he emerged in the late 90s with prize-winning short stories and then a 2001 debut novel, An Obedient Father, which won the PEN/Hemingway award. But the positive response to Family Life still feels "almost as unreal as the book being done," he says. The intervening period of silence – although he was named on Granta's 2007 list of best young American writers – has not been easy.
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