K. Srilata's debut novel Table for Four revolves around the lives of three university students
Table for Four has place for one more, the reader, who becomes a part of a dinner where the lives of three university students in Santa Cruz, U.S. and their house owner unfold through the eyes of the protagonist, Maya. K. Srilata's debut novel allows an insight that stories often don't tell explicitly.
“The book is framed on a few questions that are the defining things in their lives. It's about an evening where the four of them play games and begin to tell stories,” says the author who teaches Creative Writing and Literature at IIT Madras. “When I went to Santa Cruz a few years ago, it was my first trip abroad and the strangeness of the place got to me. It is a university town and when I was thinking of where to base my story, it came to my mind. I realised that my stay there was very creative. I was working on my Ph.D. then and it was a break from my work. But the setting itself it coincidental to the story,” Srilata explains.
Since Table for Four has a dinner table setting spanning one evening, the author reveals that it is a quick-read. “It's a compelling story, one where you want to turn the pages. You want to find out why something is happening and what is driving them towards it. Like a labyrinth; where people have inner secrets and submerged stories and cannot come to terms with them,” she says, “It's like a mystery novel but there's no murder or a whodunit sort of thing.”
Srilata's book of poems Arriving Shortly, which was also launched recently is a collection of free verse and concentrates on different aspects of everyday life. “I write about things that fascinate me everyday and more often about ordinary people. They're like story poems in free verse.”
While some poems are based on real experiences, Srilata explains that she fictionalises them. “I do draw from my life but not completely. These are poems I've collected over the last ten years. It took time to put them together and it was a pleasant coincidence that both my novel and book of poems were published around the same time,” she smiles.
Keywords: K. Srilata, Table for Four
