Deepti Kapoor Discusses “Age of Vice” with Parul Sehgal

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

Deepti Kapoor describes New Delhi, the setting of her novel “Age of Vice” as “extremely beautiful, but also violent. . . . It’s a place where you think you’re gonna get cheated and robbed until someone does something incredibly kind and breaks your heart.” The highly anticipated book, published simultaneously in twenty countries this month, is part crime thriller, part family saga centered on a reckless playboy who wants to break away from his mob family; a young man working as a servant to him; and a naïve young journalist. Kapoor, who spent a decade as a journalist herself, tells Parul Sehgal that she wrote the book while living abroad—needing the distance from her country in order to see it more clearly.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:09.7	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:12.5	Age of Vice is a novel just published this month.
0:16.0	Now I hate the word Buzzy, which seems a little tried for a serious book, but Age of Vice
0:21.0	was published in 20 countries simultaneously, which is hard to do for an author who isn't
0:25.7	named, say, James Patterson.
0:28.6	The story takes place in New Delhi, the capital of India, and its part crime thriller,
0:33.6	part family saga.
0:35.2	The author is Deepte Kapoor, who spent a decade as a journalist in Delhi.
0:40.1	And she moves the action in Age of Vice between the poorest of the poor and the richest of
0:44.7	the rich.
0:45.7	Deepte Kapoor talked this week with Parle Sago, who's a staff writer at The New Yorker covering
0:50.8	literature and much more.
0:53.1	So Age of Vice by Deepte Kapoor is this really fast-paced, shadowy novel that begins at 3am
1:00.7	on a Delhi street.
1:02.0	This Mercedes is mowed down five people, a novel then jumps back and tells a story with
1:07.6	three different points of view.
1:09.2	It was Ajay, Servant, there's Sunny, this reckless playboy, and Neda, a journalist who's
1:16.0	caught up in the story.
1:17.0	You know, it's, it's goch to say that one of the reasons I'm drawn to this book is, is
1:21.4	an autobiographical element.
1:23.0	I lived in Delhi at the same time.
	...

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