Aatish Taseer
writer, 29

Currently calling home: Delhi and London.

So far: Journalism; an English translation of Manto's stories; the publication of the critically acclaimed travelogue-memoir Stranger to History (Picador 2008).

On Stranger to History’s reception: I like for the book to make its own way, without following it too closely. But I meet many people who have read it…and read it well.

On your forthcoming novel, The Temple-Goers: A story about Delhi, about the fear and joy people feel at having their certainties about who and what they are overturned, among other things.

On having always wanted to write: But for a few instances of self-doubt, in which I was almost bullied into getting a ‘real job,’ like that of a lawyer or banker. Fortunately they didn’t want me.

One thing to look forward to in 2010: The autumn publication of my Manto translations in the UK and the US by Everyman – I believe it is the first time Manto is being published seriously in America.

When not writing: I read. Both in English, Urdu and very slowly – at a pace of ten lines a day – in Sanskrit.

Favourite writers: Alexandr Pushkin, Guy de Maupassant, V. S. Naipaul, Joseph Conrad.

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