Girls Who Stray: Anisha Lalvani's Debut Novel Makes Space For 'Messy' Women

When Anisha Lalvani started writing her first novel over seven years ago, she was drawn not by a structured plot but by the need to give voice to the emotional tensions churning within her and several others in her generation. She found herself confronting personal loss and uncertainty, all against the backdrop of political turmoil. These themes became the spine of Girls Who Stray, a genre-blending debut that fluidly moves between themes of coming-of-age, defiance, crime, and power.

Speaking to SheThePeople, Lalvani shared how the book came to life. "When I started writing it, I wrote a long scene about just a girl walking around Delhi, experiencing loss in her personal life. I tried to juxtapose that with the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, and the protests that happened after. I wanted to bring up questions about personal grief versus political grief. It was only much later that I tried to weave it together through the narrative of a thriller," she revealed.

Lalvani, who has previously worked in corporate and social impact, brings a nuanced understanding of society and disparity to her writing. "A couple of years ago, I was working on CSR projects and travelled to a lot of slums and villages across the country. In this setting, you realise that there's so much inequality in our country and such a vast difference between lifestyles. You feel this guilt and paralysis. So I bought that little bit into the story," she said.

Girls Who Stray

The protagonist in Girls Who Stray, simply known as 'A', is a 20-something woman who has just returned to India from the UK. However, home does not feel warm and welcoming; there is an uncertainty, a disconnect, and a simmering restlessness. Then there is a clandestine relationship with a bigwig contractor—older, married, influential. What begins as a distraction quickly spirals into something darker, more consuming. The story takes a chilling turn when A finds herself in the crosshairs of a double murder.

Through A's world, Lalvani explores the complexities of desire, agency, and power. The book also touches on nonconformity and female rebellion, whether it is the protagonist joining an underground activist group, reclaiming her sexuality as an escort, or simply walking the streets of Delhi after dark. "She's rebelling against the sense of conformity that women have, and I explore it in different layers and levels. I believe that the rebellion is in more subtle ways," expressed Lalvani.

Who is 'A'?

Girls Who Stray does not have your typical protagonist whose actions can be easily categorised into 'right' or 'wrong'. Anisha Lalvani masterfully captures a morally grey and gripping character in A. "Literature is all about delving into the depths of a person. I think the deeper you go into people's minds, you realise people are very ambiguous about things; nothing is as it appears on the surface. And moral ambiguity in fiction allows you to give that depth."

"I wanted to portray this very alienated, lonely character, which is not very common in Indian literature. 'A' is a bit snooty and irritating, so not necessarily likeable... Women in fiction have for a long time been portrayed as palatable, nurturing, and kind. But I wanted to challenge that."

Lalvani shared that the decision to keep the protagonist nameless was to make her an everywoman, someone who is realistic, and onto whom readers can project their own experiences. "I imagine that what she was going through is like what a lot of young girls would go through. If you don't mention a specific name or caste or whatever identity, there's a kind of universality to the character, which is what I intended," Lalvani explained.

Family & expectations

Young people often carry the weight of financial anxiety, with little room to falter or stray from expected paths. Anisha Lalvani brings this pressure vividly to life in her book, as A grapples with the burdens of economic obligation and unspoken familial expectations. These are not loud demands, but a quiet tension beneath the surface of her family life: looming loans, feelings left unsaid, disappointments never voiced, and emotional absences that often do more harm than conflict.

Lalvani opened up about the culture of silence in many families, especially around daughters, and how it ultimately affects society at large. "I think there's a lot of emotional silence within Indian families, and a lot of roles that you're expected to play—like 'be a career woman, be ambitious.' But we don't talk about what you actually want to do. Do you want to work nine to five? How do you want to save money? These kinds of deeper conversations are often absent."

"Indian families are also big on keeping up appearances, for your neighbours, for your relatives, and also within family members. So instead of being able to lean in and seek support from your family, they put up this wall, which becomes a really sad thing. I wanted to evoke that in the book, where this character has a loan but she is not able to have a transparent conversation with her own father about repaying it." 

Although Girls Who Stray isn't a parable, it holds a mirror to the unaddressed fractures that exist within societies, families, and selves. Lalvani hopes that her novel can humanise people. "We have a lot of assumptions about people, but no one can be easily defined. For example, not all sex workers are the same, nor are all doctors the same. Each person is so individual. So fiction can bring out their unique personality and quirks, make them more human," she expressed.

The book is compelling not just in its gritty arc, but also in its cerebral and emotional perception of gender and society. In refusing to make A "likeable," Lalvani brings to life a character who is as raw as she is thrilling. She brings out the loneliness of urban life, the alienation of adulthood, and the burden of truth in a world that thrives on silence. These make Girls Who Stray layered with haunting realism.