It's no coincidence that Munir, 38, ran a bookstore called The Reader's Shop in Santa Cruz. That experience of "looking at books from an entirely different perspective," including bonding with customers and suppliers, and carrying out the dreary task of inspecting the daily sales register, has shaped the novel. But, she insists that this is where the similarities end. "The novel began with a simple premise: A young woman has the opportunity to live a bookshop dream in Bombay. The premise came from my own life, as did Fiza's worldview. But early into the book, invention took over, whether it was in Fiza's relationships or the events that scatter across her life. She's tall, for instance, and likes ice in her drink, unlike me. Could two people be more different? Seriously speaking, I stopped bothering about the biography versus fiction question early on, and that was liberating. Fiza is a hybrid—she's some version of me, with the addition of certain characteristics that I aspire to, and some that I dislike."

The novel reads like a 2001 travelogue of Bandra, taking you through everything that makes the suburb. Be it the "grotty" Yacht Bar on Hill Road, where Mumbai makes a pit stop for beer and beef chilly fry; Damian Furniture known for its annual Christmas display, featuring a life-size Santa, reindeer and sleigh, or A1 Bakery and Vienna Store, "where the faithful bought bread and eggs." "My relationship with the city is complex, and yet Bombay is such an integral part of who I am. I've tried living elsewhere but that didn't last long. Paper Moon gave me the chance to indulge my fondness for the city, and to celebrate what I love most about it. It helped that the book is set in the early 2000s. It's always tougher to romanticise the present," she says.

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But, were she to set the book in the present, when bookstores are falling like nine pins, would Munir get her protagonist to take a leap of faith. "Maybe, a co-working space or an organic café [would be more prudent than setting up a bookshop]," she thinks. "But then, it has always been difficult to run an independent bookstore. This business has been about more than just profitability."

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