‘I don’t think we should write stories being fearful of how they will be received’: Nilanjana S Roy

Like many great works of fiction written before it, Nilanjana Roy’s Black River aims to tell the reader why terrible acts of violence happen to little girls and why they are the most vulnerable members of any community. In that sense, it is a murder mystery that is a why-done-it instead of a whodunnit.

Black River is a Delhi noir that explores the aftermath of the murder of a young girl in a seemingly-quiet small town on the bank of Yamuna. It is a police procedural that uncovers the social hierarchies of Indian society. This book is about how people process death and live with loss in Delhi – loss of a loved one, loss of physical and political space, and loss of autonomy. It makes the reader wonder who owns rivers and riverbanks. What is the nature of the relationship that Yamuna has with the most vulnerable in Delhi?

“Why are you writing this book?” Roy’s agent and friend, David Godwin, asked her.

“Because what has bothered me about these crimes is not the question of who is the murderer,” she said. “So often in India, the murderer is known to everyone and if there is a certain mystery around it, it is very rare that...

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