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  Pic: Rupinder Sharma

Author Kamila Shamsie is an old India hand. Besides flying in often to unveil her novels in the capital, she's also a regular at literary festivals. But she confesses to getting increasingly agitated with each trip as her visas don't cover Agra. 'On a Pakistani passport one gets visas only for individual cities and so I'm yet to see the Taj,' says the London-based writer regretfully.

On her recent trip, she zipped between Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta to launch her newest, sixth novel, A God in Every Stone (Bloomsbury India).

Shamsie last came to Delhi in 2010 with Burnt Shadows, her fifth novel that was shortlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize. The novel was also translated into 20 languages. 'It's taken me a while to return to India because I haven't had a book out in five years,' says Shamsie, who recently acquired British citizenship and now holds two passports. She divides her time between Karachi and London.

The success of Burnt Shadows was responsible for keeping her away from writing, she says as it took her literary festival-hopping across the globe. 'The irony is that if your books don't do so well, you aren't invited to festivals and you can write more,' she says with a laugh.

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  Kamila Shamsie (left) in conversation with columnist and author Nilanjana Roy at the launch of A God in Every Stone in Delhi; Pic: Rupinder Sharma

She admits that when she was in her 30s she was a quicker writer. She wrote furiously, and between 1998 and 2005 had four, Karachi-centric, novels under her belt. Her first, In the City by the Sea (1998) and Kartography (2002) were shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys prize while Salt and Saffron (2000) put her on the Orange list of '21 writers for the 21st century'. She wrote Broken Verses, her fourth book, in 2005. However, Burnt Shadows proved to be a new chapter in her writing career. In 2013 she was named a Granta 'Best of Young British Novelist'.

Shamsie began work on A God in Every Stone in 2011 and finished last year. 'I took many wrong turns and wrote many pages which I later deleted. I work in a very haphazard fashion. I start a novel with what I think I want to write but then it turns out to be completely different,' she says. But she says she's disciplined and would sit down each morning to write at her desk — five days a week, taking the weekends off.

A God in Every Stone is set briefly in Britain and the Peshawar of 1915 and 1930. The story revolves around Vivian Spencer, a British archaeologist, her young Peshawari protege, Najeeb Gul, and his older brother Qayyum, who loses an eye fighting for the British during World War I at the killing fields of Ypres in Flanders.

During her research, Shamsie stumbled upon the figure of Scylax — the ancient traveller who had journeyed down the Indus — and was hooked to his account. As a general he had also been honoured by Darius, Alexander the Great's Persian rival, with a precious silver coronet. Shamsie decided to weave the tale into her novel. So, Vivian is intrigued by the story behind the artefact and attempts to unearth it in Peshawar.

Shamsie's research, she admits, was mostly in libraries in London and Peshawar. 'I would love to say that I went to archeological digs but the truth is that I sat for long in the British Library in London and only walked around Peshawar for a few hours,' she says.

She was very conscious that she didn't want to spend time in contemporary Peshawar. 'I needed a feel of Peshawar of 1915 and 1930, so only went to the museum and explored the old city,' she says.

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Shamsie hails from a family of writers who encouraged her to be a writer too. Her mother is a short-story writer and her grandmother is a novelist. 'I grew up with the sound of my mother's fingers on her typewriter. It was very disturbing when she got a computer, for it seemed as if the soundtrack of my life had disappeared,' she recalls. By the time she was nine years old she had decided that she was going to be a writer.

She was in her last year at university the US in 1998 when her first book got accepted for publication. 'I graduated in May and the book was published in November in London,' she recalls.

London, she says, had always felt like home as a child she spent most of her summer holidays there.

Between 1999 and 2007 Shamsie says she lived a fairly nomadic life with Karachi being the base where she would write for six months. She'd move to London in summer where she'd spend five months ('spending all the small advances that I earned for my books') and then leave for the US for four months where she'd teach a semester at Hamilton College in New York.

Then she suddenly grew tired of packing up. 'I began to feel the need for one home, one kitchen and to have all my books in one place. London was the natural choice,' she says. London gives her a physical freedom she loves. 'I love the fact that I can walk around — as a single woman — without worrying,' she adds.

Since it's difficult to start a new novel while promoting a book, Shamsie has decided to take to shorter writing assignments. Besides her frequent column for The Guardian, she will now be focusing on essays, short stories and newspaper articles. She's also looking forward to the forthcoming literary festivals in the UK till autumn.

'I don't know what my next book will be about and I'm trying not to panic about it,' she smiles.