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Why is Akhil Sharma scared of ghosts?

Akhil Sharma, who was recently chosen as one of the 21 Best Young American Novelists by the British literary magazine Granta, makes an unusual confession: He is scared of ghosts.

'I don't like to leave the house after it gets dark,' says the writer whose only published work, An Obedient Father, brought him rave reviews seven years ago.

'People don't understand the danger they put themselves in when they go out at night,' he says, while describing ghosts as his greatest fear.

New Delhi born Sharma, 35, lives in New York City with his wife, Lisa.

Larry Swanson, his mother-in-law, says Sharma, is not joking about his fear. 'I can assure you he is afraid of the dark,' she asserts.

But Sharma, whose short stories have appeared in several prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, certainly is not afraid of choosing a writer's life.

Granta has published many emerging writers including Salman Rushdie in nearly 25 years of its existence.

Rushdie was featured in its first-ever list of Best Young British Writers in 1983. The magazine published its previous Young American Novelists

list nearly a decade ago. Among the writers on the list then were Jonathan Franzen and Sherman Alexie who are among the best contemporary writers.

Sharma, who migrated to the United States with his family when he was about eight, has set his new book in an Indian immigrant family.

The magazine ran an excerpt from Mother and Son, Sharma's second novel which will be published next year.

'I liked America immediately,' one of the characters in the book says. 'Among the things I liked most was the television show The Love Boat. I had never seen women in bikinis before. I also liked elevators. Elevators were rare in India and to me, there was something thrilling about how my pressing a button meant the elevator would shut its doors and pull itself up floor by floor. My brother Birju also liked America.

'America is so clean,' he said. 'In India, if anybody sees a clean spot, he thinks, let me spit there before somebody else gets a chance.'

Why did it take Sharma over six years to write his second book? Those who have known him well say that he is one of those writers who is not afraid to tell his publisher that he is not turning in the book until he is fully satisfied with it.

Text: Arthur J Pais