Stories don’t exist in a vacuum, but many authors brush political events under the carpet because they think people may get offended, said writer Abdullah Khan at The Hindu Lit Fest in Chennai on January 27.
Speaking at the session titled “The World of Storyteller: The Power of Rooted Fiction”, Mr. Khan, the author of Patna Blues, and Tejaswi Apte-Rahm, author of historical fiction The Secret of More, discussed with Nandini Krishnan the importance of local history, context, and authentic storytelling,
Ms. Apte-Rahm’s novel, set in colonial Bombay, a city marked by the then-booming textile mills and the inception of the silent film industry, is loosely based on the life of her great-grandfather. Besides drawing from literature in libraries in London and Pune, the author relied on the oral history of her family.
“The level of authenticity that I managed to put into the writing could not have been achieved without the hours of interviews,” she said.
