For someone like this writer, who was impervious to Pottermania as a child—regretfully, because she chose to be indifferent towards JK Rowling—the phenomenon that this series was, hit home last year. Life would never be the same again. An adult lapping up children's fiction. Keshava Guha, whose debut novel, Accidental Magic (HarperCollins India), releases this week, reminds us why this craze is not ours alone.

Son of historian and scholar Ramchandra Guha, Delhi-based Keshava's novel, which is set on the cusp of the new millennium, tells the story of four social outsiders, Kannan, Curtis, Rebecca and Malathi. Living in different parts of the world, their lives are brought together by Potter. "I am a Harry Potter fan, but that is only incidental. I loved the series, but it was never my favourite. There were other books that I loved more," confesses Keshava, in a telephonic interview. "It was a shared experience for my generation. The characters in the book are people whose paths would otherwise never have crossed. That was the attraction of the series."