Zibby interviews TV exec and debut author Nayantara Roy about THE MAGNIFICENT RUINS, a wise, witty, and deeply moving novel about a young Indian American editor who inherits her estranged family’s sprawling mansion in India—and their long-buried secrets. Nayantara reflects on her novel’s nine-year evolution, the challenges of cutting a 600-page draft, and the joy of crafting a story that bridges Brooklyn and Calcutta. She also shares what it was like to tackle generational trauma and cultural norms in her writing. Finally, she touches on her career in television and teases her next novel.

Transcript:

Zibby: Welcome Nayantara. Thank you so much for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books to discuss The Magnificent Ruins, which I loved from the first time I opened it and am like so excited to see it in this form and all of that. So congratulations. 

Nayantara: Thanks so much for having me. 

Zibby: My pleasure. Can you please tell listeners what your book is about? 

Nayantara: Yeah. It is about Lila, a 29 year old editor in Brooklyn, uh, in the publishing world. And she wakes up one morning in Brooklyn in her apartment and discovers that her grandfather is dead.

Her grandfather lives in India and has left her this enormous mansion. The only catch is that Laila's mother, grandmother, and a host of other relatives in what is commonly called a joint family still live in the mansion. Laila goes back to India and sort of confronts the things she has left behind, and that can include both the family, but also a whole host of other secrets.

Zibby: Love the pitch. Excellent. Well done. And where did the story come from? 

Nayantara: Yeah, I mean, I was at Columbia University doing a degree in film and TV to become an executive. And fiction has always been in my bones a little bit, you know, it was the thing that I knew I would get to at some point. So I took this class with this professor called Benjamin Taylor.

And he, it was called Other People's Secrets. And, you know, for weeks we, we heard lectures and really, it really inspired me. And then at the end he was like, well, you should, you guys should all write something for it. And what came out of me was an essay about a mother and a daughter. And I realized I had never spoken about the thing that kind of haunted me, which is a culture of violence that is often conflated with discipline in, um, this is the first time, by the way, this is my first podcast. So this is the first time I'm speaking about it. 

Zibby: I'm honored. 

Nayantara: And what was so intriguing to me was that. I then sort of sent the essay to my novelist, uh, cousin, who you've interviewed as well, and other people in the community.

Zibby: Wait, who is, remind me who your cousin is. 

Nayantara: Uh, her name is Disha Bose, and she did Dirty Laundry. 

Zibby: Yes, yes. Which I also loved. 

Nayantara: And what was so interesting is that it, the way it was normalized. What you would call social services for in one country is very much in the water of another country, right? And then I went on this other path after the essay.

Had been written to sort of understand the systemic generational quality to what we had experienced. And it was not different from what my black friends or my Chinese friends had experienced in my very nerdy circle. And I realized I was, there was something there. And then Professor Taylor really pushed me into it.

And said, it should be a book. And here we are. 

Zibby: Wow. How much time went between him saying that and today? 

Nayantara: That was the year 2015. 

Zibby: So that nine years. That's not bad. I mean, for listeners, the book is, is what, 456 pages, right? 

Nayantara: Yes. 

Zibby: That's a lot. 

Nayantara: It was longer. 

Zibby: It was longer. What was, what was it at its longest? 

Nayantara: I think.

You know, a first draft had clocked in at 600, and a first draft is filled with things that a reader does not ever need to see. And I was working with my dear friend Sunil Yappa, the novelist, to, you know, sort of, he was just being like, there's something here, but we really have to make sense of it. And that was way before my agent or my editor ever saw it.

Zibby: Wow. So the process of cutting it down and finding the meat of it and what was really important, is that something you love doing? Some people love, some people hate. Like, did you find that exciting or excruciating to cut?

Nayantara: I did not find it excruciating. And in terms of novels, you know, I was very, I'm a giant reader and my day job helps me sort of understand what works and what doesn't.

And I needed the help and I wanted the help. So I was very grateful for it. I remember there was this one passage I really loved and, you know, I think on its own, it's, it's very pretty. And my editor was like, absolutely not. I, too, am terrified of bugs, but this does not belong.

And so it's not, you'll never see it. 

Zibby: I hope you saved it off to the side somewhere.

Nayantara: I did. 

Zibby: I have like a deleted scenes, you know, maybe I shove it into something at some point. You never know. 

Nayantara: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As a novelist yourself. I'm sure that's, that's very familiar. 

Zibby: Wait, tell me about your day job, which I know we discussed last time, but anyway, tell everybody else about, more about what you do and how, and how you rose in that career as well.

Nayantara: Yeah, what I wanted to be was, uh, a writer, and I have novelists in the family, my grandad, my cousin. I just never saw myself being a full time writer, I have too much anxiety for it, you know? And so I was like, okay,.. 

Zibby: I will say, I will say that seems to be a prerequisite to be a writer, some level of anxiety.

So you're, you're, you'll fit right in. 

Nayantara: Maybe the message is to sort of share it with the world and be like, so, you know, I, I had mucked about in the theater in Bombay, uh, some of my plays that I had written had gotten produced internationally as well. And then I just went off to school, you know, and by the time I got to graduate school, film and TV, I was in touch with a lot of executives who inspired me, you know, and I was like, this is great. I, I understand the world of IP and books, and I want to be the guy who, you know, doesn't just hand off the book, you know, but I want to make that into a show. And so I learned how to do that at Columbia. And, Then right from there on, I worked for the Russo brothers, and then I worked at a studio, and now I work at a network.

So it's been very organic, that process. 

Zibby: And so your day job, are you evaluating scripts still? Are you, like, what is, what are some of the things, and what are some exciting projects? We don't have to talk much about it, but I'm just curious. 

Nayantara: No. Uh, and it feeds right into my writing, but I'm a television executive, um, and I work at stars, which means that I buy projects from all at all levels, right?

Sometimes it's a full pitch with an A list actor attached in the room, and sometimes, depending on how famous the person is, it's a cocktail napkin idea. My job is to sort of buy it and then oversee the creative development of those scripts. The scripts, when they're ready, finally go off to shoot and that's where I'm not involved anymore.

But the cuts come back to me to give creative thoughts on. 

Zibby: So fun. 

Nayantara: It can be some days. No. Like anything else, you know, it can be really stressful. 

Zibby: What, um, is there one project that you, like, had so much involvement with? that you feel particular pride sharing? 

Nayantara: Sure. You know, I have a project, uh, that's just wrapping up post production right now.

It's called Hunt the Hunting Wives.

Zibby: Oh, yeah. Make up. 

Nayantara: Yeah, May. Yeah, yeah. May, who is now a dear friend. Yes. And, you know, I sort of, it's wonderful to, because we switch jobs, the industry shifts, mandate shift. It's kind of wonderful to go from, hey, a book came in. This is great. We're going to develop it. Let's make an offer.

Great, we've got the book now. We have to attach a showrunner, a writer. Let's get this through to the next level. Oh, these scripts are great. Well, the star's vision for this is one way. And then sort of getting that process and seeing it all the way to where it is now in the cuts phase. It's really interesting.

Zibby: I'm so excited for that. I love makeup. When is that show coming out? Do you have any idea? 

Nayantara: Yeah. Yeah. We don't have an air date yet, but it's in. 

Zibby: But you were just filming it, right? Wasn't it just.. 

Nayantara: That's right.

I was on set in North Carolina. 

Zibby: Yeah. Oh, so fun. I didn't know. This world is so small. Does that mean that you can make your own book into a show?

Are you planning on that? Are you hoping? 

Nayantara: Not me, certainly, but I, uh, have given it over to the agents to do what they will. 

Zibby: Okay. All right. Sounds good. Tell me more about the secrets and characters in the book and some of the messages that really bring to the fore. I know you mentioned, you know, violence and, you know, gender relations.

And that is so interesting to think about the norms of different countries, right? I think about that a lot, actually. Like, even, you know, I read a lot of parenting books about parenting across cultures and just, you know, kids just come out these blank slates. Like, I don't know, why do we make the rules we make?

I mean. And look at how they're doing it over there. They're so much better off, it seems like. So anyway, more, more of the themes or more of the subtleties in the book. Talk a little bit more about that. 

Nayantara: And usually the answer to that question that you're asking, why do we make the rules the way we do, it's in the DNA of our ancestors, right?

It's in the DNA of how a culture or how a group of people have come to survive, have come to, you know, want their kids to do better. 

And it's in the, Both the joys and the trauma of what they experienced themselves, right? And that is very much the, the idea of generational inheritance. We don't just inherit homes and property.

We inherit a whole bunch of things from our parents. And the idea of that, especially at a stage where, you know, I am thinking about what I'll pass on to my kids was, was kind of crucial. I also wanted to write a story. About a love letter to two countries that I really love, you know, I loved Brooklyn in such a specific way.

And I mean, I live in Silver Lake now, but, you know,..

And I found myself in this sort of the kind of, the kind of deep love for Calcutta. It's in my bones and, and, you know, I wanted to write about being torn between both places, but also belonging to both places. And I think it's, that's a theme, my partner was pointing that out last night, that keeps recurring, whether it's Lila's choices between the men in her life, whether it's Lila's choices between the past and the present, and whether it's between Brooklyn and Calcutta.

Zibby: Oh my gosh, I love it. So now that you took nine years to write this novel. Have you sold another one and do you now have like nine months to write it? 

Nayantara: I actually took seven years to write it and then it's sold and in the year and a half I've written another novel which is going out soon. 

Zibby: Exciting. Can you say anything about that one?

Nayantara: It's called Sisters of the Halved Heart and it is about two half sisters which is, I don't know. 

A relationship that I find so interesting. I have a half sibling myself, the sisters in the book share some DNA with us, I guess, but also not at all in the way that fiction comes about. And then, you know, I, I found like there's a politeness to the relationship and a deep desire to belong to each other, which is so, it's so specific, you know, because you share one parent and then you don't.

And then the trials and tribulations also, the distance and joining of that was very intriguing to me. And so it's about these two sisters, these two half sisters, uh, and the men in their lives. 

Zibby: That's interesting. I know I always wonder about half siblings. I have step siblings, but not half siblings, and I always think about what that would feel like and all of that.

Nayantara: Step siblings too, so intriguing, like Anne Patchett's Commonwealth, I think does such a great job of, you know, really excavating that one. 

Zibby: Yeah, who are some of your, speaking of other authors, who are some of your influences in, in your own writing? Even though you have a bunch in the family. 

Nayantara: Um, all of whose books I love, actually, I love Vikram Seth with a passion.

I think he taught me via his books of what it meant to write in the diaspora, like really be able to merge cultures and write in a way that is wholly myself. He has had a lot of impact on my writing. I read obsessively. So I'd say, you know, I love Paul Marais. I love Ann Patchett. I love Sarah Manguso. I love stories of the inner landscapes of men and women.

And, you know, I love the way they respond to institution and trauma and joy. 

Zibby: Mm hmm. 

I felt, I read Liars by Sarah Manguso. And I just, I wanted the rest, I just like wanted to know the whole story. Like, tell me what was not in the book. Like I want to know everything. 

Nayantara: Well, what's so interesting about a writer like that is that you take their body of work .

You know, and read it. And that is what their writerly self is. It's sort of presenting and I think body of work, whether it's fiction or nonfiction, sort of forms such a beautiful, cohesive whole. 

Zibby: Now I have to go back and read more. That was my first actually. Of course. So what do you do when you're not working?

Like what are some, how do you relax if at all? Do you relax? You know, are you a, are you. Huge TV person because you work in TV or do you never watch TV because you work in TV or what do you like to do? 

Nayantara: I like to see friends. We do a bit of that. I have this little life in Silver Lake with my friends nearby and my partner and we have a dog and we have a backyard that I would like to raise some chickens in, but I have, I'm too busy for that at the moment.

I do watch a lot of TV. I relax by reading, I think, which I imagine is something you're a little familiar with. Um, it's funny how I keep coming back to, you know, like nothing chills me out faster than there's this particular spot on the couch where I can look out at the blue sky. Open the newspaper or a book and, you know, I'm relaxed.

Zibby: Yeah, I think it's faster, too. I can read just for a couple minutes and feel my mood totally shift, whereas other things, I feel like, take longer. Like, you can't just do, you can't get, I mean, well, I don't even, I don't, I don't do the other things anyway. I was going to say, you can't just, like, meditate for a second, but I don't even, I don't meditate, so what am I talking about?

Anyway, I, I think that it, it's a, it's a quick fix, reading. 

Nayantara: I think. 

Zibby: So, although the longer, the better. 

Nayantara: That's what I tell myself. Yeah. 

Zibby: Do you have any advice for aspiring authors? 

Nayantara: I think this is specific to me, but I will say that day job, night job, you know, I think it's really important to not write to the trend and to look inside and be like, what am I really, really into?

You know, what is the story? I cannot not tell, you know, and then whatever shape that takes in whatever form, whether it's a story or a whole novel, I think that's the thing that will resonate and you have to love it because it's going to take long, you know, I mean, some people write books in very short periods of time, but even then, I think they come to it with a sense of truth that then takes on the forms that fiction takes on.

And I'd say without that, it's really tough to go the distance, you know, here I am nine years later, but you know, it took a while. 

Zibby: Good things take time, you know, there's no rush. Amazing. Well, any words of encouragement for people who have been similarly taking years to get their first novel out there.

Like, why not give up? Like, why didn't you just give up? 

Nayantara: I think it's important to not center it wholly to your identity, you know. Yes, I'm a writer, but I am so many other things and there's some refuge in that because the times that you are writing you're so wholly a writer that that identity can sometimes come with a lot of baggage.

And I think it's important to find other spaces to occupy in life. You know, this is contradictory to maybe some of the greats, but this is what has worked for me to find some refuge and reading other people's work and having some, having a life that is separate from writing. It has made the writing richer and it has made it easier not to give up.

I love that. 

Zibby: Excellent advice. 

Nayantara: Thank you. 

Zibby: Well, I'm so excited for you. Thank you, by the way, also for your lovely note. That's so sweet. Oh, my gosh. I saved, like, every note. And I'm just so excited. I'm so excited for the book to come out, and I'm happy to support in any way, and just I'm so glad our paths crossed, and I got to read such an early version.

Nayantara: But, Zibby, I have to say, you're just such a champion for the writing community, and you've Just been such a day one supporter of the book. I'm really grateful for it. But also, how cool is that? You know, I work two minutes from your bookstore and I'm in there constantly. 

Zibby: I hope we've scheduled an event with you already.

Have we? 

Nayantara: Yes. 

Zibby: We better jump on it. Okay. Good. Um, well, I hope I can be there. Yes. And thank you for, you know, having my bookstore in, in the backyard and, you know, feel free, come in anytime, do whatever you want there for your book. And, you know, very exciting. It'll be the opposite of, you know, I've ruined the magnificent, not non ruined book.

Anyway, I'm really wishing you all the best and very excited for you. 

Nayantara: Thanks so much. Thanks so much. You're my first podcast in a lineup, so I couldn't have asked for better. 

Zibby: Oh, good. Well, thank you. All right, I'll um, see you soon. Speak to you soon. 

Nayantara: See you soon. Nice to see you Zibby. 

Zibby: Thanks. Okay. 

Nayantara: Bye bye.

Zibby: Bye-Bye.