Her literary whydunnit has won France’s highest award for fiction and international acclaim. Leila Slimani, the author of Lullaby (The Perfect Nanny in the US), discusses her art and ideas with Tishani Doshi

Tishani Doshi keeps an ear out at the world’s biggest literary carnival

A poem

Without pressure but without pause. That is the slogan of change in Cuba today

It isn’t necessary for a critic to watch something with an entire Indian glossary in her head. Sringara, who? And what is the use of speaking of context? Why should you know anything about the history of Dasiattam and devadasis in South India?

Dog dramas would just be part of the general drama of Indian life if it weren’t for the out-of-control and totally upstaging cow drama

A month in Japan, where the bathroom experience is beyond superlative, makes one wonder how Japan and India could have diverged in such a dramatic fashion when it comes to potty culture

Do we become digital hermits just to bypass the clamour and save our skins? Unfortunately, that doesn’t work. Because identity on the internet is something akin to a ‘blank vote’. You can be sure someone else will appropriate it if you don’t

Artists have long equated beauty with truth, but the truth is that beauty only exists in relation to something less beautiful. Beauty shines in the juxtaposition. For every Bulgari there is something truly Vulgari

As humans, we are wired to be restless, to succumb to wanderlust, to struggle with Fernweh (far-sickness) as opposed to Heimweh (homesickness)