Word famous: Vikas Swarup of Q&A / Slumdog Millionaire, discusses his new book

The Girl with the Seven Lives, his first in 11 years, is darker than Q&A. The main character is hiding something. ‘She isn’t automatically lovable,’ he says.

It took Vikas Swarup about 10 weeks to write his debut novel, Q&A, in 2005. His latest, his fourth in the genre that he calls “social thrillers”, comes after an 11-year gap, and was three years in the making.

The Girl with the Seven Lives was released by Simon & Schuster this week. “I wanted to once again explore a strong first-person narrative, but with a morally complex character this time around, who would feel more real in today’s world,”