HARI KUNZRU

Hari Kunzru was born in 1969, has published two novels, and was named on Granta's 2003 list of Britain's Twenty Best Young British Novelists. The Impressionist won the Betty Trask Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award. His new novel, Transmission, was published earlier this year. You can read more about Hari Kunzru on our Contemporary Writers website.

This interview was compiled by enCompass Online Reader in Residence Susan Tranter in October 2004 using questions from visitors to the site.

Susan Tranter: Hari, can you start by telling us what you've been reading lately?
HK: I'm part-way through the shortlisted books for the Guardian First Book Prize – I'm one of the judges this year. So far Rory Stewart's The Places Inbetween stands out, the story of a walk he did on his own through Afghanistan. He's a great observer – you get more understanding of the place from him than you do from countless foreign correspondents. It seems to me a good and necessary book.
Also I'm reading Bob Dylan's Chronicles (volume 1), which isn't a conventional biography. Even if you're not interested in Dylan it's a good book about what it's like to be creative, and the pressure of trying to live up to what people expect of you.

Trip, UK: Both of Hari's books seem to feature characters who are transplanted from the familiar into a strange world: is this a particular theme of his, or does he think that's what all writing should be about?

HK: I don't think it's what all writing should be about, but I suppose I am interested in how people are shaped by their environments and their contexts, and what happens when that context changes.

Sandhya Rao, India: Hari Kunzru is largely an expat writer, in that he writes about India or an Indian character of his memories. Does this sometimes lead to a conflict between 'memory' and 'reality' in the course of his writing? And if it does, how does he deal with it? I've only read The Impressionist, but I don't see much of his Kashmir ancestry in that, which makes this contradiction seem even more palpable.

HK: I don't really feel there's a conflict – both books include things taken directly from my family experience. In The Impressionist I used lots of family stories, and it's a historical book – any construction of the past is partly about memory. It's also about a tradition of writing. I'm visiting India more now than I did in my 20s – a couple of times a year – and actually the book has helped me get closer to my Indian family.

Leo, South Africa: I'm a journalist who's trying to break into the short story market, but finding it difficult. As a journalist turned best-selling fiction writer, how did Hari find making this transition, and does he have any advice for people like me?

HK: I never really intended to be a journalist; I saw it as just a way of making money while I was writing fiction. My aim was to take on only enough journalism (preferably non-labour intensive, pretty moronic stuff) to buy me three days a week for writing. I still do bits and pieces. I actually did an un-moronic piece for the Sunday Times recently about a visit to refugee camps in India, and I've written about art and politics too.
It's really difficult to get going in short stories and fiction if you haven't got a name. I started out by publishing things for free in tiny magazines and on the web – it was a way to get known, and to have a shop window (although it goes against the journalists's instinct to do something for nothing). I had a story published in the British Council's New Writing anthology, and after that the agents began calling me.

DD, Canada: Both of Hari's novels are pretty epic in scale, stretching over several countries, etc. I wonder if he has ever written short stories, or whether he prefers the broader canvas of the novel to really go for that big approach? If he used to be a journalist, could it be that he wants to 'stretch his imaginative legs' with his literary work and get away from writing concise pieces?

HK: Yeah, I haven't written many stories, they have a way of getting big on me. I like the way you can put a lot into a novel – lots of characters, lots of different emotional states. I tend to turn to non-fiction for shorter stuff. But The Impressionist taught me that you can't put everything in. I could have gone on forever, but you have to learn to stop somewhere.

Martin, Scotland: I really enjoyed The Impressionist. I haven't read Transmission yet, but I was surprised to hear that it's about computer viruses and that kind of thing. Can you ask Hari if it was a conscious decision to choose a completely different subject – was he worried about being pigeon-holed as a certain kind of writer?

HK: You're right. I didn't want people to see me as someone who just wrote historical fiction, so for Transmission I drew on my interest in technology. I think it's much better to be the kind of writer that nobody knows what they're going to do next (although the publishers' marketing departments usually want 'more of the last book that sold well please'). I'm much more interested in being able to treat any subject with my own style – style defines a writer, rather than subject matter.
 

Sassy J, UK: How much research into computer technology did Hari have to do for Transmission? Are there really viruses with the potential to be as destructive as Leela, or was he using artistic license? And didn't he think it would hard writing about a subject like that which most people don't really understand?

HK: I used to be a technology journalist, so I knew quite a bit already, but I did travel to the US and went onto the Microsoft campus, although that was more to get a flavour of suburban life out there. I did have some conversations with people who worked for anti-virus companies, but they were very heavily monitored because obviously a lot of the information is sensitive. In Transmission I was very specific about there being different versions of the Leela virus – no one virus could cause all that chaos. But the anti-virus companies are bracing themselves for a fast-mutating virus of that kind. The situation is only going to get worse…
I think there's a fine line when it comes to writing about something technical which a lot of people won't know about. Patrick O'Brian's sea novels, for instance, are full of detail about 18th-century boats which builds up a really rich picture. And I do think people like to learn from fiction. But you don't need to give all the details; it would just dissolve into code. You need to be specific and concrete without burdening the text with jargon. It's up to the reader to judge if I've managed that in Transmission.

Min, China: Does Hari do a lot of research for his books? Does it involve travelling to the places he is writing about?

HK: Yes. I tend to travel with a notebook, and then write at home. At the moment I need to write a scene set in rural France, in one of those holiday camps English people go to. I've been to some of those places, but not for a long time, and I'm kind of resenting the fact that I have to go there for a few days – but I know it will improve the quality of the writing in that scene, so it'll be worth it.

Susan Tranter: Are there any writers who aren't so well known that you'd like to recommend to people using enCompass?

HK: I'm trying to get everyone to read The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon. He's a Caribbean writer, writing in the '50s and '60s about new immigrants coming to London from Trinidad and Jamaica. It's screaming out to be acknowledged as one of the most important post-war books published in the UK. It's a fascinating picture of a world that doesn't really exist any more.

Susan Tranter: Many thanks Hari. Finally, can you tell us what you're working on at the moment, or is it top secret?

HK: I'm at the early stages of another novel, and I don't want to say too much about it, other than that I'm reading a lot of political material from the seventies, so it'll be something new again, and probably quite a departure in tone.

Back to main page