When Nina Mistry's life hits rock bottom, she decides to change her stars by falling in love...with herself—a hilarious, heartfelt story from outrageously funny novelist Radhika Sanghani.
Nina didn't plan to spend her thirtieth birthday in jail, yet here she is in her pajamas, locked in a holding cell. There's no Wi-Fi, no wine, no carbs—and no one to celebrate with.
Unfortunately, it gives Nina plenty of time to reflect on how screwed up her life is. She's just broken up with her fiancé, and now has to move back into her childhood home to live with her depressed older brother and their uptight, traditional Indian mother. Her career as a freelance journalist isn’t going in the direction she wants, and all her friends are too busy being successful to hang out with her.
Just as Nina falls into despair, a book lands in her cell: How to Fix Your Shitty Life by Loving Yourself. It must be destiny. With literally nothing left to lose, Nina makes a life-changing decision to embark on a self-love journey. By her next birthday, she's going to find thirty things she loves about herself.
Your novel was inspired after spending a night in jail, yourself. How does a feel-good story have roots in what one would assume is a negative life experience?
My night in a jail cell was completely unexpected. I was working on a journalistic story that went very wrong, and while I was scared of the consequences, my biggest fear was having to spend a night in a cell alone. I’d just had a break-up and was desperate not to feel how lonely I was. But I was forced to confront my fears, and it ended up being the best thing to happen to me.
I finally faced up to how sad I was instead of pretending things were okay and it was hugely liberating. I accepted I was heartbroken, wanted to quit my job and had nothing in common with most of my friends. That sparked a huge self-love journey for me that led to me going freelance, making amazing new friends and writing 30 Things I Love About Myself!
Nina Mistry goes on a similar journey in my book, and though her story is definitely light-hearted with lots of fun moments, it has its fair share of difficult low moments too. To me, every feel-good story needs its sad parts too, because that’s what makes it realistic. Every good thing in my life has come out of something tough so I wanted to reflect that in my book!
With everything going on in the world, lighter fare seems to be what people are reading. What about 30 Things I Love About Myself makes it a great post (we hope) pandemic read?
I think this is the perfect post-pandemic read because it’s all about a woman learning to be strong alone, and to heal her loneliness. So many of us were forced to be physically alone during the pandemic, while many others struggled with loneliness even when surrounded by people. Nina deals with both of these issues at different times, and her story is inspiring and positive. Whenever I talk about this book, I use words like ‘kind’ and ‘warm’ and ‘happy’ (as well as smiling as I do so!) and I think that says it all. Who doesn’t need more kindness and warmth in their lives right now?!
Body positivity plays a role both in the novel and in your real life. How can we all stick to positive thoughts about ourselves (and others!) with so much negativity swirling around?
It’s so hard! But it is possible! I make a big effort to only follow positive accounts that make me feel good on social media, and to surround myself with positive people in real life as much as I can. That makes a big difference. The other huge thing you can do – which Nina Mistry does in the novel – is to befriend yourself and be your own source of positivity. If you’re able to get to a place where you’re kind about your body, or ideally, celebrate it just the way it is, then it doesn’t matter what’s happening around you. Because you’ll have you, and that’s so much more valuable.
As a journalist who tackles issues like racism and social issues, how do you see a piece of fiction carrying its own influence?
I love fiction and think it really has its own power. A journalist writing about issues is always didactic, but when issues are covered in fiction, they can reach people in different ways. Sometimes it’s a message resonating with a reader in a way it never has before, or just that certain messages make their way to new audiences. But I think fiction has a huge influence and it’s one that shouldn’t be undervalued!
Radhika Sanghani is an award-winning features journalist, an influential body positivity campaigner and a 2020 BBC Writers Room graduate. Her latest novel 30 Things I Love About Myself - a warm-hearted story about a woman trying to find 30 things she loves about herself after hitting rock bottom - is out in January 2022. She has previously written two YA novels: Virgin and Not That Easy.
You can find her on Instagram and Twitter on @radhikasanghani