Harper Collins Publishers India and Reliance Time Out, on Wednesday, launched Jaishree Misra’s latest fiction,
Secrets and Lies. The evening mainly featured the writer in a tête-à-tête with author Anita Nair, in the course of which she revealed the pulse of her new release.
Released in the UK two weeks ago, the book is said to have become a best seller. Dedicated to Cupra, a dear friend from school, Misra said that this is essentially a story of guilt, woven out of her fascination with the idea of exploration. “Although started off as a whodunit, don’t read it as a mystery or a whodunit, approach it as a story that celebrates friendship, joy and hope,” she appealed.
The book – the first of a three-book deal with Harper Collins UK – explores the extent to which women in their 40s, would get involved with their girlfriends, to help one another whilst in a phase when friendship becomes pivotal and everything else dminshes in importance.
Misra was born and educated in India and moved to England in 1990. Her repertoire comprises
Ancient Promises,
Accidents Like Love and Marriage,
Afterwards,
The Little Book of Romance and
Rani. The Uttar Pradesh government banned Rani in that State in 2007. Misra is currently a film and video examiner at the British Board of Film Classification in London.
Secrets and Lies revolves around four characters: Anita, Zeba, Bubbles and Sam, whose friendship spans 20 years. Beautiful and intelligent, they were the top clique, until Lily D’Souza arrives and instantly threatens their superiority. Anita, Sam and Bubbles later shift to London, while Zeba stays back to become the queen of Bollywood.
The novel narrates a secret the women have to confront when they get together for a school reunion: a secret that has haunted their adult lives – Lily’s death on the night of their school prom, and the open verdict that shielded their possible involvement in it.
