LONDON: It must have been surreal for law student Nadia Mikail to find that Waterstones in Gower Street London, the mainstream and academic bookshop she must have passed by hundreds of times on her way to university, had stocked copies of her maiden book, The Cats We Meet Along the Way.
It became even more surreal to see the books stacked beside books by American novelist Stephanie Meyer!
The day I met up with the young novelist, she was understandably flushed with excitement as that was the day her book, published by Guppy Publishing Ltd, landed in bookstores such as Waterstones, WH Smith, Blackwell's and Hatchards.
We walked the short distance from a Malaysian eatery in King's Cross where I had mee goreng mamak and Nadia just nibbled on her roti, to Hatchards, where she was going to sign copies of her book with stickers that say, "Signed by the Author".
She looked as if someone needed to pinch her to remind her that the book she wrote during the lockdown two years ago was finally making its debut.
And everything seemed to be happening all at once. That evening her publisher was also celebrating the launch.
Nadia, a final-year law student at King's College London and who is from Kuching, Sarawak, wrote about 17-year-old Aisha, who hasn't seen her sister, June, for two years.
Aisha, her mother, together with Aisha's boyfriend and his parents embark on a road trip in Malaysia — in a beautifully decorated campervan — to track down June and mend the hurts of the past.
During the road trip, there's also another passenger, Fleabag, a stray cat that they adopted.
The Cats We Meet Along The Way came into being as a result of the lockdown at a time when hopes died and the future was bleak.
"The lockdown made me think a lot about home and family. I knew I wanted to write a story about these themes, even if I hadn't figured out the specifics of the plot at first. The actual plot came after I had written a few scenes, actually!" said Nadia, who also wrote and published short stories, such as Facts About Stars, a winning entry in the Georgetown Literary Festival 2020.
Nadia found that it was easier to write during the enforced curfew "as there were only so many things one can do in a student accommodation alone while the country shut down around you".
She added: "Writing definitely kept me company and calmed my nerves during the first lockdown. It definitely kept me more disciplined with my hours as I didn't have any appointments to keep."
The lockdown and pandemic also meant that the newly created Guppy Books had to change its approach.
It created a competition for unpublished and unagented writers.
A message from Guppy Books said: "We had over 400 entries to the 2020 YA competition. Writers sent in the first few chapters, which we whittled down a longlist of 40. And the shortlist of 11 was then judged by Bella (from Guppy Books) and four industry experts."
The message added: "Nadia Mikail's novel, The Cats We Meet Along the Way, shone through like a jewel. It's an astonishing, heart-warming debut about the importance of family at a time of catastrophe. Nadia really is an author of the future."
And the rest, as we say it, is history. That was how Nadia's manuscript found its way into the bookshops, with colourful eye-catching designs as a cover.
Written during the London lockdown, Nadia's debut novel, set in Malaysia, takes readers with her from Kuching to other states in the home country via the road trip.
It is about family relationships and young unhurried love.
Speaking about her writing journey, the former SMK St Teresa, Kuching student said her mother, a lecturer in English, would read her stories.
"She's very honest about whether she likes them or not.
"But she's very supportive of me. My whole family is," she said.
Bella, her publisher, had also been supportive during the process of writing the book, she said.
"I was very secretive with everyone else because I don't like to show my writing to people when I'm in the middle of it.
"She was very encouraging and helpful as I wrote."
The Cats We Meet Along the Way is an easy and a delightful read with illustrations of a cat to indicate a new chapter.
It takes readers back in time and to the present.
"I love cats. I used to have cats back home. They're magnificent creatures, and one thing I think people don't really notice about them is that they notice when you're sad and come and sit with you.
"They're very affectionate in their own way," said Nadia, who will be graduating this summer.
The Cats We Meet Along The Way will be available in MPH on March 2.