A Tolstoy - on His First Try; Vikram Seth Thought He'd Take a Crack at Writing a Novel. Now He's in the Literary Stratosphere.

From: The Washington Post | Date: May 1, 1993| Author: | Copyright information

"By the end of this," Vikram Seth was saying, as best he could say anything with his book-tour-ravaged voice, a mere wisp of its former self, "by the time this is over, I'll be a most unsuitable boy."

Seth was at the end of a two-week stay in London that had changed both his life and, according to the book critics of the major London newspapers, the face of modern literature. Seth's 1,349-page first novel, "A Suitable Boy," was justifying the megabuck advances his publishers had paid by rocketing up the bestseller lists. More stunningly, tough-minded reviewers were comparing him to Tolstoy.

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