Friday, 24 November, marks the 56th birthday of Arundhati Roy. Few, if any, will contest her status as a literary powerhouse. The astounding critical and commercial success of The God of Small Things won her a permanent seat in the pantheon; no account of modern Indian fiction is untouched by the neon glow of her name and work.

When Roy decided to wade into the murky waters of make-believe again after a gap of 20 years, all of us sat up and cheered. While its reception might have been mixed, it drove home the fact of Roy’s celebrity.