How a trip to Guyana became a short-listed novel

Tue, 04/10/2012 - 05:00 — Anonymous by Samantha LeeseWhat does it mean to
"really travel" in a world where so much is connected and so little seems
new? One answer may be to spend a year in a place that everybody else seems
to have forgotten. And, from there, to write a novel so adventurous and
beautiful that it reminds us how much of the earth there is left to see.
Former cricket writer Rahul Bhattacharya does just that. The result of his
year-long stint in Guyana was "The Sly Company of People Who Care" --
short-listed for this year's Man Asian Literary Prize. The debut novel
follows the picaresque travels of a young Indian journalist who goes to
Guyana to escape the "deadness of his life." Of mixed Bengali and Gujarati
descent, Bhattacharya is no stranger to relocations. The 32-year-old author
compares his childhood to that of an army cantonment kid.read more