Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the Mumbai-based author Amrita Mahale about her new novel, Real Life (Penguin India, July 2025).
In Amrita Mahale latest novel Real Life, the wildlife biologist Tara disappears from a remote Himalayan valley, sending her best friend Mansi on a search to retrace her steps. Meanwhile, the prime suspect, Bhaskar, unravels a disturbing labyrinth of obsession and half-truths.
Against a backdrop where technology, nature, caste, class, and the pursuit of freedom collide, Mahale’s novel is a haunting exploration of love, loss, and friendship. In a world constantly pushing for conformity, Real Life is a story about the many ways women vanish – from the world, and sometimes from themselves.
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Episode notes:
Real Life by Amrita Mahale (Penguin India, July 2025)
Milk Teeth by Amrita Mahale (Context, November 2018)
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen (Viking Press, August 1978)
Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth by Stephen Alter (Aleph Book Company, August 2019)
Stones of Silence: Journeys in the Himalaya by George B Schaller (Viking Press, March 1980)
Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas by Harley Rustad (Harper Collins, January 2022)
Cave in the Snow by Vicki Mackenzie (Bloomsbury, January 1999)
Figuring by Maria Popova (Pantheon, February 2019)
‘The Jessica Simulation: Love and loss in the age of AI’ - Jason Fagone (San Francisco Chronicle, July 2021)
‘Of God and Machines’ - Stephen Marche (Atlantic, September
2022)
‘Male-Order Brides: Why smart home devices and feminized A.I. need a rethink’ by Yolande Strengers and Jenny Kennedy (Slate, September 2020)
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