For Zuni Chopra's debut novel, The House that Spoke, the most special compliment she received was from Kashmiri artist Masood Hussain himself. "He said that I had captured the heart and soul of Kashmir. This coming from someone who captures the heart and soul of Kashmir himself, meant a lot," says 17-year-old Chopra. Naturally, we can't wait to find out what compliments she will rake in with her second book, The Island of the Day Before. This work of the teenager is not only a collection of stories but also includes flash fiction and some of her poetry. "My book is about what a fairy tale would mean in today's world," she says, adding, "It is for anyone who wants to revisit fairy tales and wants to draw from them a different kind of story." Expect stories about a little matchstick girl who is on a quest to seek a companion, a merchant and a gnome out on an adventure and many more interesting stories. While she's launched the book at Mountain Echoes, Bhutan's literature festival, in August, she will be launching it in Mumbai, the city she calls home, next month.
Chopra, the daughter of film critic Anupama Chopra and film producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, wrote her second book in the summer of 2017. She even interned at a press which promotes women authors at Berkeley and with YouTube. She's enriched herself by reading several books too. "Every book, written or read, changes people in one way or another," she says. But all this will take a back seat now as she is concentrating on applying to universities in the US. It comes as no surprise then that she will be taking up courses related to arts and writing. "Maybe I'll grow up to be a writer or a journalist," she thinks out loud and we hear her dog in the background, wanting her attention. Taking that as our cue, we wish her luck with all her endeavours and sign off.
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