Niven Govinden: 'Accessibility across formats/platforms is everything'

Acclaimed author Niven Govinden returns with Black Bread, White Beer, a new book out on The Friday Project's digital imprint. The book, a short treatise on a marriage on the edge of falling apart, follows 24 hours in the life of Amal and Claud as they leave hospital following Claud's miscarriage and visit her parents. What's spoken and unspoken, causes tension and happiness and what keeps them together and apart gives the book a sombre, heartbreaking edge. 'I like to think of it as a boxer' Govinden says. 'Constantly jabbing at his opponent.

We spoke to Niven about the book, about his literary heroes and why he chose to go digital for this release.

The book is about so many things: the unspoken moments in a marriage; the generational gap; the reality of mixed race couples; technology versus 'the old ways'. How did you manage to cram so many ideas into such a short space?

Those themes fell into place during the writing - where the story of the marriage took centre stage. It was important to have these jarring contradictions vying for the couple's attentions and loyalty as the struggle to deal with their personal crisis. Everything from pushy in-laws, to a shifting town-country dynamic. I like to think of it as a boxer constantly jabbing at his opponent. Something physical and unwanted, needing to be batted away.

The book also takes place over a short period of time. Did you think a lot about who Amal and Claud were and are before and after the book ends?

Very much so, especially as they're not particularly cheerful during most of the book. I constantly needed to remind myself that they were incredibly optimistic and happy once... it was why they married in the first place.

The speed of the digital publishing model and the opportunities it gives you as a writer to reach reader directly is a great thing...The book has come out to acclaim in India and is digital only here in the UK. What excites you about the digital format?

The immediacy of it, first and foremost. The speed of the digital publishing model and the opportunities it gives you as a writer to reach the reader directly is a great thing. I also love the frontier ethos coming from those working in digital publishing. Everyone is open to new ideas on how to publish, promote and sell books.

With the success of Fifty Shades of Grey and short stories on tablets/mobile, how do you think our reading habits are changing?

People are reading more books. Accessibility across formats/platforms is everything.

The book reminds me of John Cheever and Richard Ford. Who are your literary heroes?

I think about Cheever all the time. His work is a constant for me. Ditto William Maxwell, Eudora Welty, and Richard Yates. Paula Fox and J L Carr were probably the strongest voices as I was writing the book. Without reading Desperate Characters and A Month In The Country, Black Bread White Beer wouldn't be the book it is.

What is it about the breakdown of communication in a marriage that drove you to write the book?

It mostly came from a desire to explore a troubled marriage; its privacy, and messy, ugly flux. Difficult marriages are one of the cornerstones of the male literary bastion, something I tried to ignore during the writing of the book. It wasn't my intention to emulate what had come before, more to create a path of my own.

What are you reading now?

Tove Jansson stories, Carson McCullers biography, Isaac Bashevis Singer - Enemies.

Who will win the Booker this year and who should have been on the longlist?

I would love Jeet Thayil or Will Self to win. I wished Alan Warner got some Booker love for The Deadman's Pedal. It's a fantastic book.

Black Bread White Beer by Niven Govinden is out on The Friday Project

Follow the official Tumblr for extra stories from Amal and Claud