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Book In Focus Winners
Every year, the Book in Focus contest at Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest invites readers from across India to engage with a literary classic, to revisit its world, and to discover what makes it timeless.
In 2025, as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby completes 100 years since its publication, the festival celebrates this enduring masterpiece that captured the glamour and restlessness of the Jazz Age. The novel’s themes of aspiration, class and desire remain as relevant today as they were a century ago, resonating deeply with readers across generations.
Participants were invited to share what the book means to them and the entries we received reflected a wide range of perspectives and heartfelt interpretations. After careful consideration, three winning entries were chosen for their originality, insight and emotional resonance. The winners of the Book in Focus contest 2025 are Dr. Rohan Agrawal, Sutikshya Mallick and Tanishka Talreja whose reflections can be read below.
Come, watch them read out their work at the festival, 8th November, 2025 at The Little Theatre, NCPA. To know more about Book in Focus, click HERE.
Please note: The winners are listed in alphabetical order. This is not a ranking.
Dr Rohan Agrawal
"When I read The Great Gatsby, I was drawn to how beautifully it shows human desire and illusion. On the surface it’s about parties, money, and glamour, but deep down it’s about loneliness and chasing something that doesn’t really exist. Gatsby keeps looking at the green light across the bay, believing it will lead him back to Daisy and his past. But that light is just a symbol — like the dreams many of us chase today. Whether it’s success, recognition, or love, we often run after an image we’ve created in our minds. What makes the story powerful for me is that Gatsby isn’t a hero or a villain. He’s just a man with big dreams, who tries too hard to make them real. And maybe that’s why his story feels so human — because we’ve all, in some way, believed in our own version of the “green light.”"
Sutikshya Mallick
"A century after its initial appearance, The Great Gatsby remains a mirror to our fidgety century. Underneath its glistening parties and champagne laughter is something painfully recognisable: the craving for identity, love, and a sense of belonging. Gatsby's pursuit of an unattainable dream now seems like our pursuit of prosperity and approval in a time dominated by staged lives and cyber illusions. Fitzgerald's keen eye for class, performance, and moral decline slices across the decades, revealing how ancient appetites keep recurring in new forms. In 2025, where social hierarchies and virtual deceptions still construct the illusion of success, that green light at the end of the pier still beckons, which is far away, lovely, and painfully human.
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Tanishka Talreja
This is honestly the first classic I’ve genuinely enjoyed. The Great Gatsby really manages to capture the essence of power, patriarchy, and the obsession with appearances in such a striking way. It’s fascinating how the novel shows the divide between old money and new money, and how that gap defines people’s worth and influence in society. The way Fitzgerald portrays wealth isn’t just about luxury or status; it’s about the illusion of control and belonging. What I found most interesting is how money and looks dictate almost everything, from love to social standing, and how those without them are automatically seen as less important. The book also shows how deeply ingrained patriarchy is, with women constantly being controlled or objectified, no matter how rich or glamorous they seem. Beneath all the glitz and drama, there’s this haunting emptiness that makes the story feel timeless. It’s not just about the Jazz Age; it’s about how society still works today, where power, money, and appearances decide who gets seen and who doesn’t.