The emotional nucleus of a story is very important: Prayaag Akbar

It takes enormous courage to pull off a novel like Leila that offers the reader none of the comforts usually associated with the make-believe. If anything, journalist-turned-author Prayaag Akbar's debut work of fiction, set in a cityscape that thrives on isolation, segregation and hierarchies, is unsparing in its bleakness. Yet, the book also defies the lazy classification of dystopian literature. Leila, as it turns out, is much closer to reality if you care to distance yourself from the rose-tinted narrative of a resurgent India.

"At the core of the book is a mother-daughter relationship. The mother Shalini's search for her missing daughter Leila. I find this bond very moving and powerful — it's a unique relationship. I came to wonder what would people feel if they are separated by overarching political forces who have tremendous influence over individual lives," says the 34-year-old, who has been been hailed as a new, original voice in the world of Indian fiction. For a novel condensed in 200-odd pages — and published by Simon and Schuster India — the sort of praise following its release might have been a tad overwhelming, if not embarrassing, for a debutant. He seemed to have coped with it fine. Dressed in white shirt and black trousers at the book launch organised by Tata Literature Live at a south Mumbai venue, Prayaag's understated sartorial elegance and mild-mannered disposition resonated with his spare, elegant prose.

Leila adopts the voice of a city-bred woman for which Akbar had to unlock the gates of a different emotional universe to familiarise himself with its workings. It definitely helped to have a mother who is a psychoanalyst to contribute to this process. "She was always willing to tell me whether what I was writing aligned with the way a woman would be thinking. She was my first reader and I was able to use her knowledge and insight into the workings of the human mind," says the Mumbai-based author.

Leila took shape over four years while he was juggling his other, demanding role as a journalist. "My urban novel depicts realities that have existed in Indian cities for many years now. And, of course, there is activation of violence at an institutional level in the last two to three years. So, the book draws upon several factors — some immediate and others longstanding."

In the last 10 years as a journalist, Akbar has often been pushed to see different slices of life. "It's a great job which demands that you go out and see the world. If you are writing about a section of society or a family, you have to understand what they are going through to really be able to write about it well. You go out and see the country again and again and again, and each time you learn something about your country from the story you do. You are challenging pre-conceptions and misconceptions all the time. There aren't many jobs that give you such opportunities," says the London School of Economics alumnus.

Akbar won't forsake non-fiction just because Leila has received wondrous praise. "I would definitely do non-fiction; I enjoy the form. I have just finished doing an essay for a British publication on caste in young, contemporary India. I thrive on that kind of challenge — being forced to go deep into an idea and read about it. I love reading non-fiction as well. I think we read something we really admire and then try to emulate that in our writing. I am inspired by both fiction and non-fiction." He draws inspiration from a constellation of literary greats as diverse and distinct in style, content and voice as JM Coetzee, Kazuo Ishiguro, PG Wodehouse, Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell. "The emotional nucleus of a story is very important for me. Though Leila is political and articulates my angst at the way our cities are shaping, the heart of the story is Leila and Shalini. That was the first thing I wanted to explore, the force of feelings."