“I wanted to tell a contemporary story about our society’s double standards when it came to women and marriage,” Shroff says about her book, Love in the Time of Affluenza….
After her first book, Battle Hymn of a Bewildered Mother (which came with a foreword by Priyanka Chopra), Shunali Shroff made her fiction debut with a novel on modern-day relationships in Mumbai’s high society earlier this year. Since its release in July, Love in the Time of Affluenza has garnered both commercial and critical success, and made fans out of well-known names including Swara Bhasker, Gul Panag, Simi Garewal, Barkha Dutt and Crazy Rich Asians author, Kevin Kwan. “A captivating novel about a bunch of Crazy Rich South Asians. I devoured this delicious treat in 48 hours, laughed nonstop, and it made me want to book a flight to India immediately. I need the sequel now,” Kwan said about Shroff’s book in a congratulatory post on Instagram.
So what makes Shroff’s first-ever fiction novel—set in the plush living rooms of Mumbai’s upper class—such an instant hit? Vogue sat down with the author to discuss her material, and get insight about modern-day marriages and the challenges she faced while writing this social satire, which far too many people saw themselves in.
