Anuradha Roy’s new book is your sign to move to the mountains to be a better writer

I first met Jerry on a Zoom call at the peak of the pandemic, when I was interviewing Anuradha Roy about her novel The Earthspinner. The author was sat outside her cottage in Ranikhet, Uttarakhand, the sun on her face. Midway through the call, Jerry leapt onto her lap, refusing to budge, demanding cuddles—and then more cuddles. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do,” Roy laughed, gently trying to calm him down. But Jerry was determined. He had made her lap his home, and he would not leave. Readers of the book may know that the writer almost manifested Jerry into her world through Chinna, the fictional dog she created. But that is another story.

Nearly five years later, when I speak with Roy again, she is inside the cottage. It is winter in Ranikhet: dusk settling over the cantonment town, gunshots from the Kumaon regiment echoing through the valley, the birds already gone home. Even before the pleasantries, I ask after Jerry, who once again makes an appearance in the 2015 Man Booker–longlisted author’s new book, Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalayas, published by John Murray Journeys, a Hachette imprint. Can I see him? Is he off somewhere causing mischief? Might he surprise us the way he did years ago? Roy pauses when I say his name. Later in our conversation, she tells me that Jerry was recently mauled by a leopard during a walk in broad daylight. “The leopard was waiting in the bushes. There were people on the road, tourists and such. I heard him yelp, and when I turned back, he was gone. In such cases, you never see the body.”

Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalayas. Published by John Murray Journeys, a Hachette imprint.