by Jeet Thayil
First published 2019
Francis Newton Xavier lives in Manhattan as a painter and poet, creating decadent works that echo his hero Baudelaire. His art brings him recognition, culminating in a celebrated exhibition in Delhi. After 9/11 strikes New York, Xavier abandons his life of excess and returns to India. The journey becomes a reckoning with his history, from his early days among Bombay's notorious poetry circle to his current middle age. His biographer Diswas documents these formative years, capturing Xavier as both charismatic rebel and self-destructive artist torn between competing desires. Xavier pursues an uncompromising aesthetic vision while battling his own conflicting instincts. As he travels toward an uncertain future, his story reveals how an artist's existence can transform into their ultimate creation. The novel explores the tension between salvation and damnation in a life lived without compromise.
Genres: fiction, art, literary-fiction, contemporary, biographical-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, redemption, self-discovery
Setting: Bombay, Delhi, India, Manhattan
Period: 9/11, Middle Age
496 pages · Paperback · Faber & Faber
Content warnings: addiction, substance-abuse