On this episode of The London Magazine Podcast, we speak to short story writer and novelist Gurnaik Johal. Gurnaik’s 2022 collection We Move won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Tata Literature Live! Prize, and his debut novel, Saraswati, is out now with Serpent’s Tail.

In the episode, we discuss maximalism in the novel, the Indian diaspora and the difficulty of writing about current events – ‘this is where I say to any budding writers out there: write historical fiction!’

Timestamps

• 1.35 - The escapism of writing a maximalist novel during COVID
• 3.04 - Gurnaik reads an extract from Saraswati
• 7.43 - Moving from short fiction to the novel
• 9.36 - Research, knowledge acquisition and the editorial process
• 12.53 - How to write about current events that are changing day by day
• 14.24 - Maximalism and ambition in a debut novel
• 19.39 - Seeing India through the eyes of the diaspora
• 23.25 - Comedy and levity in the novel
• 26.54 - Origin stories and myth
• 29.08 - Writing ‘climate fiction’
• 31.22 - The strange timewarp of publishing

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