Dé’s latest book peeks into a teen’s mindset

Prolific author and columnist Shobhaa Dé is of the opinion that young adults in India have lived on borrowed fantasies for too long, reports Purva Mehra.

Prolific author and columnist Shobhaa Dé is of the opinion that young adults in India have lived on borrowed fantasies for too long.

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To remedy the situation, Dé has penned her first novel for children in English called S’s Secret that launched in the city on Monday.

The S in the title refers to Sandhya, a 14-year-old protagonist who will recur in the ‘Snappy Happy tween’ fiction series that Dé has signed on with publishing house Popular Prakashan.

Sandhya is a precocious urban tween who shuttles between angst and excitement. In this first book, she harbours a compelling secret that propels the story forward.

“Writing adult fiction is a challenge, but grasping the mindset of a young adult is even more so,” Dé (61) admitted.

A mother of six, Dé referred to her daughters as the research lab for this project.

When they were younger, Dé promised her daughters that she would write a book for kids and has spent her time in their growing years “shamelessly cannibalising their lives”.

“I eavesdropped, peeked into their e-mails and picked up their lingo. Tween lingo is abridged, as are their clothes,” Dé said.

The contexts, references and characters in the book are quintessentially Indian as Dé prefers to stay away from competition and approach each new project with a fresh mind free of prejudices.

“This book stays clear of wizards, goblins and vampires. There is strictly no magic,” Dé stressed.

Dé also persisted with the not quite best-selling genre because she felt a huge void in the market for Indian fiction in English addressed to children.

“I remember being 14. It’s a formative time in our lives and a very exciting and confusing one. However, there is a whole new set of reference points now, from when I was a teen. It’s the toughest book I’ve had to write because children can’t be fooled,” confessed Dé, who has dabbled in a host of literary genres.

The author also hopes to address working mothers through this book and has thus addressed the foreword to them.

“Parenting is far more challenging today because social parameters are changing so fast. I hope to reach those young moms at sea with their precocious 12-year-olds who have learned how to take advantage of their working parents,” Dé said.