Adjunct Assistant Professor Diksha Basu '14, author of Windfall (Ballantine Books, 2018) and The Destination Wedding (Ballantine Books, 2020), has just announced that her next novel, The Affairs of Mala Sen, is forthcoming with Harper Via in 2027. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing India, the novel follows a young widow living with her mother-in-law in New Delhi whose world unravels after she discovers her late husband's secrets. Publisher's Weekly reported the acquisition on July 21, 2026.
"I'm very excited that The Affairs of Mala Sen has found a home with Rakesh Satyal at Harper Via," said Basu. While editing the novel, Basu returned to the School of the Arts to teach. "Doing both simultaneously really makes me realize what a high standard we hold our students to at Columbia," she said. "I'm very grateful for this, both because I was once a student in the program myself, and also because I return to those expectations and conversations when I'm with my students, and that only helps elevate my own work."
Basu also has a memoir about early motherhood, A Mother is Born, coming out in India in September with Simon & Schuster. "All this is making me appear very productive, but actually I'm in a strange place of seeing the result of many years of quiet work emerging all at once," she said. "I'm glad I'll be back to the rhythm of the classroom in the fall—it helps hold everything else in place in a creative and unpredictable career."
Originally from New Delhi, India, Basu currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Her internationally best-selling debut, Windfall, now being adapted for the screen, was named one of the best books of the year by Esquire, and The Destination Wedding was shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and New York Magazine, among others.
