Tamil writer Charu Nivedita’s Conversations with Aurangzeb, translated by Nandini Krishnan, is an unpredictable book.

• The writer and Aurangzeb speak of the past and present, of Mughals and Marxism, of satire and Sunny Leone, and a host of other contemporary subjects. Krishnan says the novel is “defiant of all genres”.
• In it, a writer begins a novel with an idea but soon meets the spirit of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who decides to seize the opportun- ity to tell his side of the story.