First published 2024
Ayush runs a publishing house in London, but one question consumes him: how should a person live? He scrutinizes every act of consumption, every purchase, every choice. This obsession drives him to conduct a radical experiment that reaches into the lives of his economist husband, their twin children, and even the authors whose books he edits. Among his writers is the enigmatic M. N. Opie, who crafts a story about a young academic whose life changes course after a car crash. Another author, an economist, tells of an impoverished family on the West Bengal-Bangladesh border whose gift of a cow leads them toward unexpected tragedy. These interconnected stories force Ayush and his circle to confront an uncomfortable truth about free will and choice in modern life.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, psychological-thriller, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: interconnected-stories, unreliable-narrator
Setting: London, West Bengal, Bangladesh
Period: 21st-century
311 pages · Paperback · Atlantic Books