Best Selling Books!

 What makes a bestseller book?

As a very young boy I read “The Tale of Two Cities” a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. Everything about the book was exemplary in many ways and for infinite reasons. One thing that instantly made me revere Charles Dickens as a writer was his ability to be honest and portray the socio-economic reality of his times with an undiluted and unexaggerated truthfulness. And this is a quality that as a writer is very rare to possess. But when it comes to Charles Dickens, he is the master of this craft. Perhaps this is why The Tale of Two Cities has sold 200 million copies, and The Great Expectations along with David Copperfield, only affirm the mastery of Charles Dickens as a great story teller and his unparalleled ability to create an enigmatic lure around all the characters in his stories, and yet manage to drape each character with the social, cultural and economic influences prevalent in those times. 

There is one more author, who shares this art of telling a story while not ignoring the realities of the society that the author and characters are a part of. Yes, you guessed it right. Leo Tolstoy, is one author who belongs to this league of bold, yet sensitive and truthful writers. His style of colliding human desires with social paradigms and taboos is peerless, and in one of his most famed novels, Anna Karenina, he has proven his aptitude for telling stories that actually are a reflection of life and its many shades. His novels are a social narrative of human life intertwined in intricate threads of desires, lust, power, emotions, greed, betrayal, faith, family dynamics, marriage as an institution; and everything else that influences human lives. Anna Karenina, was first published in book form in 1878, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever written. Tolstoy himself called it his first true novel. And when I read it first time, I considered myself to be a mature reader.

It was almost a decade ago I read “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. But it created a very lasting impression, to the extent that I still relate with the young boy and the power of dreaming and pursuing ones dream with passion. As a young  reader still developing the flair for reading, Heidi, by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, I was emboldened by her grit and her willingness to deal with the odds that life threw at her. A young girl who relied on her will and the conversations with her inner self, that always led her a step closer to her destiny. That of finding solace and a sense of fulfilment. Which she eventually finds with her largely misunderstood grandfather and in the company of the young girl who was dealing with her own isolation, in the crowded world, where she had been abandoned by hope and liveliness of her life. Until Heidi appears in her life as a ray of hope, that would cease her days of longing and loneliness. 

Then as the youth in me matured and I had developed some taste for reading good books, not necessarily Best Selling Books, I refined my finesse for reading books by indulging in some unconventional reading. One book that flashes right before my inward eye whenever I think of the rebellious youth in me and now directing my reading instincts, I am reminded of Lolita, a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita, carried a perfect blend of emotional climax, countered by moments of quintessentially placed moments of anticlimax. Lolita is one of the most controversial of the best selling books of all time. It's about a man whose first #love died as a young teen, and his secret obsessions that criss cross his mental highways.

The list is vast and a reader’s desire to explore new books and venture on new journeys with the characters in these books, is a fascinating adventure in itself. Just like we all like adventure, but the meaning of adventure varies for each one of us. For a few, climbing a mountain is adventurous, for many dirt biking is a thrill that they cannot leave unattended; but for many, going on a journey with Harry Potter, David Copperfield or knowing the emotional swings that Anne Frank swayed on each day and every night, is an adventure unlike any other. But the question that we all would like to know the right answer to, is the one that has intrigued us all, “what makes a bestseller book?”

Is it the genre, is it the plot, is it the characters or is it the ability of the author to create a plot where we all, for a while, become a part of the plot? In whatever form that might be. As is the case with Anna Karenina, where all young lovers relate with her passions, her anxieties and her inescapable dependency on the society that she is a part of. Yet she manages to be subtly rebellious because it is everyones right to seek happiness and be happy. And when you read David `Copperfield, most of us do feel the pain and emotional shallowness of David `Copperfield. And his torments make us empathise with him and pray for him, and when we do that, we inadvertently become a part of the plot. This is what a bestseller book should be able to achieve.

And in this sci-fi novel titled “They Loved in 2075” I have attempted to invoke Charles Dicken like style , while being as truthful and candid about the socio-economic structure that we are a part of in 2023; and how it will influence our lives as family men and women, as lovers, as friends, as employees, as employers, and most important of all, as human beings who will be competing with AI powered machines and robots in 2075. And at its climax, a human lover will have to compete with the robotic lover of his or her #love interest. Because very soon AI powered robots will behave like us and even emote like us. It is then, humanity will have to prove how to be more humane and loving than machines. 

Imagine your girlfriend or your boyfriend being wooed by a robot that looks like a human being, is more patient, is far smarter, can make your partner smile, performs household chores with perfection, kisses with passion and warmth, has a stable income, and says so often, “I love you honey!” Then, do human lovers stand a chance? During Leo Tolstoy’s times, faith, marriage, social taboos were different and today they are different; and in 2075 they will have evolved to the extent that we will be forced to ask this question “will love and humans survive together in 2075?”

Read this sci-fi novel ( They Loved in 2075 ) and maybe you will find something akin to Best Seller Book in it too.