Indra Sinha's Book world : Tehelka : 05.July.2008

THE word INDRA SINHA Writer A favourite book or one that means a lot to you? City of Falling Angels by John Berendt. Every bit as good as his famous Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. John has a happy knack of meeting the right people at the right time. He researches painstakingly before he writes. I suggested to him that he should write a novel, but I think he finds the real world and its people far more beguiling than fiction. Last book you bought? The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie, thoroughly enjoyable. His writing is so fecund that you feel each sentence could break open and hatch a new story. Last book you read? The Jesus Papers by Michael Baigent, a fascinating delve into the realms of early Christian literature. Baigent co-wrote the famous The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail which was the basis for Dan Brown’s excruciatingly awful The Da Vinci Code. How many books do you own? Nine or ten thousand. A book you wish you’d written? Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov for the sheer beauty of the writing. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov because of its overwhelming power and the brilliance of its double-edged storytelling. Your favourite character in a book? Mowgli in The Jungle Book. The Gospel According to Luke and Acts of the Apostles which are parts 1 and 2 of the same work. Tendentious disinformation from start to finish. The other gospels, i.e. Mark, Matthew (for the sayings), John (for the detail) and Thomas are worth a careful read SANASTASIA GUHA