Exciting that a lot of people hate my book: Hilton

Her book has sold close to a million copies in just a year, yet Lisa Hilton has her feet firmly on the ground.“I don’t think I am famous. I don’t think any writer is really famous. Even Nobel Prize winners are known only in the world of writing. No one really cares for writers.”

A British historian, novelist, art critic, and journalist, Hilton is in India to promote Domina, the follow-up to her bestselling 2016 thriller set in the world of art crime — Maestra. The first book in the trilogy had created much sensation, mostly because of graphic sex and violence, and partly because of the unusual female lead. “I liked the idea of a woman who broke the rules,” says the 41-year-old, “There is always a set of rules for the femme fatale. She is allowed to be sexy so long as she suffers and gets punished in the end.”

The extreme reactions to Maestra is something Hilton finds fascinating. “I wrote a book that a lot of people really, really hate. And that’s quite exciting… to have written something that people have really strong opinions about. I think sex and violence are serious subjects.”

This might be her first trip to India, Hilton isn’t entirely unfamiliar with Indian writing. “I haven’t read many books by Indian writers, but I really enjoyed Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy and Arundhati Roy’s books,” she says.

Ultima, the final book in the series, will be out next year.