Book Review: The Bestseller She Wrote

The first thought that comes to one’s mind after knowing
that it is book written by Ravi Subramanian is that the plot is about banking-
a thriller about the many things that banking involves. But this book is
definitely different. Yes the main character is a banker, but the impact of
banking on the story isn’t much.

Aditya Kapoor has a life that everyone dreams of. Not only
is he a successful banker, but he is also a bestselling author. He has a loving
wife, Maya, who supports him and they are blessed with a son who loves his
parents dearly. Perfect family. Perfect life. Shreya Kaushik is a student at IIM,
Bangalore. Beautiful, intelligent and passionate Shreya wants to be an author,
a bestselling one someday. And then one day their paths cross.

When Aditya visits IIM, Bangalore to deliver a talk, Shreya
gets into an argument with him. Aditya is upset but maintains his cool. The
argument irks the IIMB authorities and in order not to let the matters get
worse, Shreya stays up all night to read Aditya’s most recent book. Her verdict-
unputdownable! Shreya becomes a convert from someone who doesn’t like the way
Indian authors write to an ardent fan of Aditya.

After a few days Aditya along with his friend Sanjay go to
IIMB for hiring and no prizes for guessing that Shreya gets selected. Soon,
they become good friends. Shreya wants him to make her a bestselling author and
constantly asks him about it. Aditya is attaracted to her and Shreya can do
anything to get her debut novel to become a bestseller. And that is where it
all starts.

Aditya has an extra marital affair with Shreya. Shreya
claims to love Aditya and adores him and keeps bringing up her novel to him
often. Aditya is happy with all the attention that he gets from Shreya and he
keeps enjoying the best of both worlds. All this until Maya gets to know about
Aditya’s affair.

What happens next? Does Maya divrorce Aditya? Will Aditya
choose Maya over Shreya? Will Shreya become a bestselling author? Is there a
way for Aditya to redeem himself from all the controversies that he has gotten
himself into?

The story begins at an easy pace but a lot of things happen
as the story develops. The story speaks about middle age romance and also the
impatience of the new authors these days who want to be instant bestsellers.
The story brings out the intricacies of human relationships. Trust once broken
is hard to be restored. The twists and turns towards the end make it an
interesting read. The book has a lot of references to the actual world with the
likes of Chetan Bhagat, Ashwin Sanghi, Anurag Kashyap finding mentions in it.
The recent Ebola crisis also finds mentioned. Hence a lot of actual facts are
added to the story making it easy for the readers to connect with the
characters.

There are a few grammatical errors in the book. What I felt
was lacking in the story was the description of Shreya’s history. A little more
about the book that she wrote could have been better as the title after all is “The
Bestseller she wrote”. Maya’s life and her emotions could have had a stronger
presence in the story line. Aditya and Maya’s kid could have also had a better
role to play of bringing his parents together.

Overall this book is a good read. The author has done a good
job with his first book of a different genre. How I love such experiments by
authors! The book has easy and simple language. A nice weekend read I must say!

Rating: 3/5