Interview | Luke Kennard on writing against the technocratic times in his novel ‘Black Bag’

Luke Kennard’s Booker-shortlisted novel, Black Bag (published by John Murray), is a social experiment in and of itself. Inspired by the 1967 experiment conducted by Charles Goetzinger, the story here is told through the eyes of the narrator-protagonist, a struggling actor, who is chosen to play ‘black bag’ for a university professor conducting his own experiment.

A dark humour-infused satirical take on the campus novel, Black Bag defies easy literary categorisation. Here, the author discusses the thought process behind the novel and his future literary experiments.

Edited excerpts: The interviewer is a Delhi-based literary critic and research scholar.