Indian poet and novelist Vikram Seth is writing the long-awaited sequel to A Suitable Boy, his second novel, which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1994 and propelled him into the public spotlight.

Penguin imprint Hamish Hamilton will publish A Suitable Girl in Canada, Britain and India in 2013, 20 years after the 1,350-page original was published. In A Suitable Boy, the central character is Lata, a rebellious girl whose mother attempts to find her a husband. The four-family saga is set in India's formative years just after it gained independence, and examines the traditions and politics of the time.

The sequel jumps ahead several decades to present-day India. Lata is a grandmother and it's her turn to looking for a good match — a wife for her grandson.

"This allows me in a sense to bring a whole lot of post-independence history to bear on the novel.," Seth said in an interview with Reuters. "It allows me to live in the present."

He added that the upcoming book will reflect some of the social and economic changes in his native country.

The 57-year-old author was born in Calcutta and currently divides his time between homes in New Delhi and Salisbury, England.

He has reportedly been paid a seven-figure sum for the sequel, but has refused to comment on this.

"Money isn't the motivation," he said. "I certainly fight hard for it, because I want to make a living and I don't have patrons … but I spend most of my time writing poetry … and there is nothing less remunerative."