This event is a discussion with Anisha Lalvani on her debut novel Girls Who Stray, published by Bloomsbury India in 2024. Anisha will be in conversation with cultural practitioner, poet and writer Arundhati Ghosh, whose book of non-fiction All Our Loves: Journeys with Polyamory in India was published by Aleph Book Company in 2025.

About the book:

Girls Who Stray by Anisha Lalvani is a dark coming-of-age thriller set primarily in the Delhi-NCR region. It follows an unnamed, anxious 23-year-old woman navigating an illicit affair with a married property developer that eventually spirals into her getting entangled in a double murder, based on a true crime. The novel explores themes of modernity, alienation, loneliness, modern Indian society, and the heavy consequences of reckless choices. The novel was shortlisted for the Kalinga Literary Festival Book Awards in the English Debut in 2024 and the Crossword Book Awards 2025 in the Jury Awards for Fiction.

About the author:

Anisha Lalvani has a Master’s of Arts degree in English Literature (Honours) from Mumbai University. She has worked in publishing and on various literary projects including the literary television programme Kitaabnama: Books and Beyond, and the Jaipur Literature Festival. She currently works in communications at a leading think tank that engages with the nexus of environment, economic opportunity and human well-being.

About Arundhati Ghosh:

Arundhati is a writer, cultural practitioner, social activist and traveller with three decades of experience including as the Executive Director of India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) (2013- 2023). Her awards include Chevening Clore Leadership, Gurukul Scholarship at London School of Economics and Salzburg Global Fellowship. She contributed on advisory panels of the Seagull Foundation, Blind with Camera, Sangama and Toto funds the Arts, and continues for Museum of Art and Photography, Shomokaleen Protibidhan, Solidarity Foundation, and Maraa. Her poetry in Bangla Oshomoye phire esho nodi hoye was published in January 2023 by Lastrada Prakashan. Her book All Our Loves: Journeys with Polyamory in India was published in 2025 by Aleph Book Company and won the Non Fiction Book of the Year Award at the Rainbow Literature Festival 2025 and the Kala Shreshtha Award for Debut Author English at the Kala Literature Awards 2026. She has also co-edited a collection of essays in Bangla of daughters writing about their mothers titled Meyeder Mayera (Mothers of Daughters) published by Sonta Prokashona in 2026. She writes a monthly column on relationships titled Ties and Knots for the Deccan Herald. She consults and trains for the cultural and not-for-profit sector