Avni Doshi and Shweta Bachchan at The Nod Book Club’s third outing

A conversation about a book written by a woman, about a woman, for women, could ask for no better pairing than Avni Doshi and Shweta Bachchan. Doshi, whose debut novel, Burnt Sugar, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020, flew in from her current home in Dubai to be at The Nod Book Club’s third in-person gathering to chat about her newly released sophomore novel, The First House. Bachchan, author of Paradise Towers and an avid reader herself, brought all her burning questions to this 50-minute chat, which covered everything from women-led fiction to Italian mothers and The Odyssey.

At the House of Masaba store on Bandra’s Linking Road, 40-plus guests braved a bunch of traffic and then sat in rapt silence, riveted to the back and forth between the aforementioned duo. The front row held a sweet surprise in the form of Shweta’s family—mum Jaya Bachchan and daughter Navya Naveli Nanda. Other attendees included content creator Naina Bhan, entrepreneur Roohi Jaikishan, author Amrita Mahale, and journalist Raghu Karnad (the star of our last gathering in Delhi). Surrounded by jewel-toned lehengas, chairs were filled with the telltale blue-and-orange cover of Doshi’s book and hands were preoccupied with craft cocktails courtesy Scottish gin brand Hendrick’s.

“When I first met Avni I said, ‘It’s a little book with a lot of big feelings and some of them are messy and it goes into an uncomfortable space,’” said Shweta Bachchan, kicking off the conversation. We couldn’t but nod in agreement; the novel centres around an unnamed protagonist whose husband wants a divorce, leaving her unable to process the structure of her life in his absence. The rapport between Doshi and Bachchan, though, allowed for many laughs, revealed a (common) fear of cicadas, and a (possible) Persuasion adaptation. We also discovered that Doshi comes from a food-loving family—her mum carries 16 packets of white butter from Mumbai to Dubai, which are then stored in the back of the freezer and served to guests.

After the deep dive into the nuances of marriage, motherhood, and more, the gin-led Basil Smash seemed to be the order of the night. Conversations continued over a selection of cocktails courtesy celebration partner Hendrick’s Gin. Each guest walked away with The Nod’s signature black-and-white book club tote bag filled with beauty and bookish goodies, the former courtesy Lovechild by Masaba. A hardcover copy of The First House, signed by the author herself, was also part of the tote, thanks to publisher HarperCollins India.

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