Up, close and personal with Novoneel Chakraborty and his Stranger Trilogy

Author Novoneel Chakraborty gifted his readers the last installment of his Stranger Trilogy —Forget Me Stranger that revolves around the much known Kolkata born-Mumbai based protagonist Rivanah Banerjee and her life in the new city.

With trilogy being quite a trend, author Novoneel says, “The Stranger Trilogy traces the character Rivanah. I wanted to sketch the character and her journey in a detailed manner which cannot be accumulated in a single book. My targets readers are young people who don’t like reading thick books and with today’s generation, it is difficult to hold on to their attention. I am inspired by authors of the western world, where trilogy is a trend. Thus a thriller in a series creates a major hype needed for commercial success.”

When asked about how he creates his characters. The young author says, “Rivanah is a small town girl who travels to a metro city, following her dreams. The story in the three books traces her life’s journey, which is also the main theme of my book — the inherent concept journey of a person and her transformation, owning to the different experiences that she undergoes. My characters are grey in nature, for example, Ekansh, the ex-boy friend of Rivanah, who mercilessly dumps her but she still feels an uncanny connection with him. They don’t fall into categories of ‘good’ or ‘bad’. They are real, having their share of frailties and goodness. My characters are not modeled on a particular person it is what I see around in my world that influences me to create them.”

With so many writers in the scenario now, Novoneel does not feel much of performance pressure and admits that publishing his first book was a cake walk. “When I wrote my first novel, I wasn’t even aware about the process of publishing. I had visited a certain publisher with mu manuscripts and they had argeed to print it. So, initially it wasn’t that difficult for me. And then my second novel followed which again became a best seller. It was then that I felt the need to create individuality with the creative streak in me providing an adrenaline rush,” he says.

With back to back best-selling books to be proud of, the author is not a part of the rat race. He says, “Someday, when you see a book lying on the table without its cover and prelim pages and no reference to the author, my reader should be able read a couple of lines from the book and recognize that it is my work. That is where I want to reach.”