India, Nov. 25 -- I read your new novel, Half Light, as a portrait of desire. It starts with this young, very physical, romance, which eventually becomes demanding and vicious. Pavan and Neville come from very different backgrounds - and the novel is bookended by two pivotal moments. They meet in 2014 at a middling hotel in Darjeeling where Pavan works and Neville is a guest. This is the year after the Supreme Court reinstated Section 377 making gay sex in India illegal again. The second half of the novel plays out in 2018, the year when the court reversed its earlier order and decriminalized gay sex. Could you tell me a little bit about mapping this novel?

I knew that the second part of the novel had to happen in 2018 because I knew tha...