If being a nice girl could have been a recipe for a great book, Writer Abha Dawesar, 34, would have created quite a buzz in the literary establishment. However, New York-based Dawesar, a filmmaker as well, knows that real life doesn’t imitate drama. So, the petite ex-banker whose novel Babyji (2005), has been referred to as the Indian Lolita, has cranked out another anarchist drama, her fourth, with Family Values (Penguin, Rs 325). “Real life lacks drama and doesn’t unfold the way you believe it would. This particular book is simply a family prism for looking at society and the way events affect the characters’ lives,” shared Dawesar at the launch of Family Values at Alliance Francaise last week.

French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont, present at the opening, quipped, “It’s quite disturbing that Alliance Francaise is supposed to release a book that challenges the very basis of Indian society. Maybe, Abha got corrupted in New York.” Bonnafont, who has read Babyji and That Summer In Paris, Dawesar’s first book, added, “I believe she is a bit French in the way she writes, especially the way she talks about psychology without being too heavy. If I were to compare her, then it would be to French writer Andre Gide who said, ‘Families, I hate you’”.

Family Values, where the characters are identified as Six Fingers, Flunkie Junkie and Cowdung, unfolds through the eyes of a boy in simple unvarnished tones.