Author Prayaag Akbar's 'Mother India' to hit stands on July 24

New Delhi, Jul 4 (PTI) Seven years after the success of "Leila", author Prayaag Akbar's next, "Mother India", will hit the stands on July 24, publisher HarperCollins announced on Thursday.

While capturing what it means to be "young and alive in today's India", it is a story of two young people -- Mayank and Nisha -- living in contemporary Delhi, plodding away to make a decent living despite a middling education.

Speaking about his latest novel, Akbar said that the story developed from that of a young man falling in love into one that addresses the impact of technology on our inner lives.

"'Mother India' began as a story of a young man who falls abruptly and silently in love. It changed, over the years, as my growing concerns over the impact of technology on our inner lives began to creep into the novel. It was important to think about how Mayank and Nisha might respond to this ever-changing landscape, nothing standing still, where our urban and non-urban environments are constantly under threat, and even our most private thoughts seem to be studied by algorithms," the author said in a statement.

The novel follows Mayank, employed in a right-wing content creator's dingy basement studio, and Nisha, who has recently moved to the city from her small town in the hills and works as a salesgirl for expensive Japanese chocolate in an upscale mall.

"We've all been waiting for Prayaag Akbar's next book, ever since the publication of his excellent first novel Leila and the immense acclaim it received. It's always a hard act to follow that sort of success, but with 'Mother India', Prayaag delivers - this is the work of major novelist coming into his own.

"This is a novel that deals with big themes, timely themes in an incredibly sure-footed, light-handed way - a novel that speaks to, and illuminates, the times we live in," Rahul Soni, associate publisher, said in a statement. The book has received early praise from the likes of Meena Kandasamy, Avni Doshi, Mohammed Hanif, Vivek Shanbhag, Amitava Kumar and Madhuri Vijay.

"A gripping account of the alternate universe of post truth trolls... (the author's) and empathy and precision provide the perfect counterfoil to the darkness that unfolds," Kandasamy said.

Doshi termed it a "landscape where objectification is mistaken for intimacy, where attention can often lead to violence". PTI MAH MG MG