Official Website of Best Selling Author
CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD 2019
NEEV LONG LIST
‘The Hidden Children is like Harry Potter in one exciting way: it feels like the first book of what will be an exciting series.’ The Swaddle
‘Everything a sequel should be- exciting and magical, with a tight roller coaster plot that made me gasp. Young adult fantasy at its best! I want first dibs on making this into a series.’ - Shonali Bose
"There is magic in this book. I was in awe of every page and thrilled by the end of the novel. Barshikar goes straight onto my very short list of must-read authors of fantasy." - Ashok K Banker
WINNER OF THE 2019 CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD
NEEV LONG LIST
My STORY
In 2012 I fell down a rabbit hole and discovered a world outside a fluorescent cubicle; I fell into writing. I began jotting down little snippets from my travels as an Investment Banker- you can find my first piece here, and I was fortunate many of them published in the erstwhile India Today Travel Plus and the National Geographic Traveller. In about a year I had contributed to the Harper’s Bazaar, Grazia, The Sunday Guardian, SilverKris, The Mint Lounge and The Hindu. I then began a novel, Fade Into Red, which, to my utter surprise, was published by Penguin Random House (erstwhile Random House India) and debuted in the Amazon Top 10 Bestseller list. Today I write and teach full time. I hold creative writing workshops for middle schoolers and young adults, and teach Finance to whose who still think I have something worthwhile to say. The Hidden Children, my latest novel, was the only Indian novel to feature in the Amazon Childrens YA bestseller list and is currently No 10 in the charts and is being hailed as the 'Indian Harry Potter.' Tooting my horn yes, but when you name is mentioned next to 'Harry' you can't help yourself.
I believe it's time for Indian Young Adults to find representation in the books they read. I want to build a strong and proud community of Indian YA and New Adult readers and spread our unique ideas of fantasy & magic across the globe.
I am from a little jewel of a city called Coimbatore but now live in Mumbai. I try and spend time as much time as I can in the Nilgiris, but never as much as I'd like. I have dreamt of a profile that went something like- 'she lives in Seoul and Timbuktu' but cannot fathom this Schrödinger's cat sort of situation where both possibilities are only live cats which is quite nice for the cat from the cat's point of view I think. Anyway, I will end this ramble with I am home wherever the two halves of my heart, my husband and daughter, reside; that's mostly in the city that I am proud to call home, Bombay, and it's alter ego, Mumbai. See, I do live in two places at once!