We chat with author Mansi Shah about A Good Indian Girl, which is an immersive, fun and heartfelt novel about a disgraced Indian American divorcée who spends a summer in Italy, reconnecting with her passion for cooking and reckoning with cultural expectations to make the choice of a lifetime.
Hi, Mansi! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I am a full-time writer living in Los Angeles, but my path to authorship was far from linear. I was born in Toronto to Indian immigrants, and then was raised in the Midwest (Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois), where I was usually the only Indian person in my grade. After completing my undergrad, I moved to Los Angeles for law school, and worked as an entertainment lawyer in Hollywood for nearly twenty years, but always had my passion for creative writing simmering beneath the surface. After my debut novel The Taste of Ginger hit shelves in 2022, I began to see that writing was my true calling in life and left my longtime legal career in order to write and travel full-time. I wanted to write the books that I wished had existed on the shelves when I was young, so my stories center on Gujarati characters and speak to generational differences across the Indian diaspora. I also love to cook, and food often plays a prominent role in my books, especially in my recent release A Good Indian Girl, where the main character is a chef.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I was nine years old the first time I said I wanted to be a writer. In my fourth-grade class, our teacher told us we were going to write one short story each week, and I asked her if I could write a novel and write a chapter each week instead. She agreed, and I wrote my first book over the course of that year. Books have always played a prominent role in my life, and my parents would drive me to the library every week so that I could check out the maximum number of books and I would spend endless hours immersing myself in those stories. Books were the best resource for me as an immigrant kid growing up in North America to be able to see the world. I’ve now been fortunate to have travelled extensively as an adult, and I try to bring that love of exploring the world and other cultures into my stories so that people can experience new places through the pages, just like I had done as a child.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I remember reading was Charlotte’s Web.
There were several books that made me want to become an author, but Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake stands out because it was the first time I had read a story about an Indian American family and I finally understood what it was like to read stories that I could relate to. Representation became a big part of my publishing journey because I never forgot what it felt like for me to see Indian characters in a book for the first time.
The novel that I can’t stop thinking about was Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. She captures so much in her novel and does it so seamlessly, and I felt like there was a lot I could learn from her books.
Your new novel, A Good Indian Girl, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Emotional, Tantalizing, Heartwarming, Cultural Conflicts
What can readers expect?
First and foremost, you should not read this book on an empty stomach, because this book is sure to make you hungry while reading. Because it would be cruel to write about so many mouthwatering dishes without providing recipes, there are recipes in the back so readers can taste the flavors they are reading about. Beyond the tantalizing food, it is a story about Jyoti, a woman who must re-evaluate her priorities after the roles of wife and mother are stripped from her after her husband leaves her. A summer in Italy full of carbs, chianti, and la bella vita slowly restore Jyoti’s confidence, inspiring her to experiment with Indian-Italian fusion recipes. But when she unexpectedly goes viral for her impromptu cooking vlogs—and candid vent sessions—her gossiping aunties have a field day. And when a shocking reveal comes to light, Jyoti must choose between family acceptance, a fulfilling career, and even motherhood, all before the summer ends.
Where did the inspiration for A Good Indian Girl come from?
I’ve read so many books that focus on women being married and having children in order to be fulfilled, and as someone who has never been married and is happily childfree, I wanted to write a story that would show women following paths other than what society has historically prescribed. We are entering a time when more and more women are freeing themselves of traditional gender roles and making the choice to remain childfree, and I wanted to write something that celebrated the possibility that there are different ways to be fulfilled in life and there is no one right choice for every person.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Jyoti, my main character, is a chef, so I felt like I got to live out my food dreams through her, and was able to experiment with creating dishes that I’d never seen before. I had a lot of fun in the kitchen coming up with the recipes that are discussed in the book. I also loved writing her best friend, Karishma, who used to work in corporate publishing in New York before becoming a freelance editor, because it allowed me to delve into some of the systemic issues within the industry that are addressed in thought-provoking novels like Erasure by Percival Everett and Yellowface by R. F. Kuang.
Do you have any advice for those who may have set some writing resolutions for the new year?
Writing is like any other skill that improves the more you do it. It took me over a decade to get my first publishing deal, so I always tell aspiring writers to keep going and keep developing their craft, because you never know when the right story will find its audience. I also never force myself to write if the creativity is not there. We all have productive days and less productive ones, and I try to focus on letting myself rest when the flow isn’t there, and trust that at some point, it will return. That took the pressure off of me when I was staring at a blank screen.
What’s next for you?
I am in the thick of working on my fourth novel, which will be published in Summer 2025. It is one that I’m really excited about and can’t wait to share more details about it soon. For now, all I can say is that continues my trend of taking readers around the world and it takes place in a different country from my others thus far.
Lastly, are there any 2024 releases our readers should look out for?
There are so many great 2024 books. Some personal favorites are Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel, The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy, The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali, The Curious Secrets of Yesterday by Namrata Patel, and A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda.
