Making the romantic novels shortlist

By Amit Roy

THE Romantic Novelists’ Association is looking for more Asian authors, two of whom happily have made the shortlist for this year’s prizes.

Sri Lankan-origin author Jeevani Charika is on the Contemporary Romantic Novel Award shortlist for A Convenient Marriage (published by Hera Books).

The book tells the story of a couple – the husband is gay, the wife straight – who marry willingly to please their parents. All is well until they actually fall in love with other people.

A Pakistani-origin author, who uses the names Amna Khokher and Emma Smith-Barton, has been shortlisted for the Debut Romantic Novel Award for The Million Pieces of Neena Gill (Penguin), which deals with mental health issues.

Jeevani, who did her undergraduate degree at St Peter’s College, Oxford, and a PhD in microbiology at Linacre College, sometimes uses her white pseudonym Rhoda Baxter – “I named myself after the bacteria I studied for my PhD: Rhodobacter sphaeroides,” she says.

“Thrilled” to be shortlisted, Jeevani goes on: “When I wanted to do English at A level, my parents said I should do science, so I could get a real job and write novels in my spare time. That’s exactly what I ended up doing!”

Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan-origin authors (like actors) are sometimes forced to choose English names to avoid getting rejection slips. Ironically, however, many publishing houses are today going out of their way to look for Asian literary talent.