In India, writer Megha Majumdar-s searing debut novel, A Burning Penguin Random House, is still a day away from release. But in the US, it-s already a winner. The New Yorker has described her "brief, brave novel" as a "tale of competing dynamism" and The Boston Globe called it "propulsive and ambitious." By Thursday, Majumdar-s debut that released globally on June 9, had already made it to the Top 12 in The New York Times bestseller list for print hardcover. And to think, this is just the beginning.

But, the US-based writer tells us in all modesty that she wasn-t preoccupied with how the book was going to be received. "The great challenge and great freedom of writing my debut was the knowledge that the world wasn-t waiting for my book. Nobody cared if I wrote a book or not. I began from a position of knowing that. I would need to invite a reader in; I would need to show them the stakes and urge them to care about these characters. It called for a disciplined writing practice, and it called for various craft solutions in the process of writing. Once you have that discipline, that willingness to sit with yourself, you have what you need to get going," the author shares in an email interview. Majumdar-s discipline seems to have won her more brownie points than usual.