Author offers peek into publishing world through fiction

With a mosaic of interlinked stories, spanning Delhi to Patna, author Siddharth Chowdhury of 'Day Scholar' fame has returned with a new tale of complex human relationships, set against the backdrop of the rather unseen facets of the publishing industry.
Continuing his "non-linear" format of storytelling with cyclicality of characters, his new book 'The Patna Manual of Style', provides "jump cuts" and throws a "smokescreen" between reality and fiction, thereby creating a "sense of hyper reality" for readers, in a throwback to his first novel "Patna Roughcut".
A cocktail of nine interlinked fictional stories, with characters recurring "tangentially" in the book, the author attempts to weave stories of life and death, of love and of struggles and challenges in the publishing industry, of glamours of being a successful author and the somewhat unglamourous world of proofreaders, through whom the book passes through before to the readers.

"I started writing the book in 2009 by which time 'Day Scholar' had not been published. My first book, 'Diksha at St Martin's', a collection of short stories brought out in 2002, sort of provided me with the blueprint for my later works.
"The characters of Ritwik Ray in 'Roughcut' and Hriday Thakur in 'Patna Manual' were introduced in my first work, and Hriday assumes a bigger role in second novel 'Day Scholar'. Readers having read those books will already have a sort of history of these characters but, I have still made them stand-alone and even new readers will not miss anything," says Chowdhury.

'Day Scholar', set amid the environs of Delhi University and its student politics, violence and associated indolence and sleaze, was published in 2010 and shortlisted for the 'Man Asian Literary Prize 2009'. One of its quirkiest characters Jishnu Da, also returns in 'Patna Manual', as the 'Importer of Blondes', the first story.
Hriday meets Jishnu Da in Delhi, where the former, an aspiring writer, works for a third-rung lifestyle magazine, and the duo renew their links of University days, and reminisce of life and lessons learnt in Patna. In other stories, readers meet the men, who have influenced Hriday and women he has loved or still continues to love, despite the mellowness brought in him with time and changing circumstances.

"Patna and Delhi are the two worlds I inhabit in and so do my characters. I was born and raised there and most of my life influences are from Patna. Patna has shaped me and I get very nostalgic of the life and society that I have seen over the years, growing up there, the rise and the fall, the glory and the decay, of society and culture.