Announcements

Quarterlife: A Novel, by Devika Rege

HarperCollins

presents

The Literary Novel of the Year

Quarterlife

by Devika Rege

A brilliant and ambitious debut that tests the limits of what the novel can achieve

Quarterlife is a novel about the idea of India. It is a story about the youth of a nation discovering their political consciousness.

‘Superb’
Jeet Thayil

‘Dazzling’
Maureen McLane

‘Blazingly original’
Vauhini Vara

 

HB | Fiction | 420 pp | Rs 599

Releasing on 25 June 2023 under our prestigious Fourth Estate imprint

 

Devika Rege says,Quarterlife is a meditation on a new era in India’s politics, and what is, more globally, a period of reckoning for several democracies. The title refers not only to a phase in the protagonists’ lives, but also that of a nation when placed against the long arc of history. As the novel goes out, I am grateful for the gentle wisdom of my editor, Rahul Soni, and to the publishers and the team at HarperCollins for their support.”

Rahul Soni, Associate Publisher – Literary, HarperCollins India, says, “When it came to us as a submission, Quarterlife was a work that immediately stood out as miles ahead of the immense number we receive – for its thematic scope and ambition, for its structural inventiveness, for its finely honed language. As I read further, I discovered what I think is its greatest strength – an attentiveness to the nuances and turns of trains of thought, and to finding the right voice for the interior life of every character. Needless to say, this was a work that I knew we had to acquire and publish – and I’m glad Devika finally chose to publish with us. She is certain to be one of the major voices in Indian fiction in the coming years, and Quarterlife is a tremendous opening salvo – the first serious fictional examination of our generation and our political moment.”

Udayan Mitra, Executive Publisher, HarperCollins India, says,Quarterlife is, quite simply, one of the most remarkable books I’ve ever read. It is a tremendous novel of ideas, of colliding, overlapping opinions, a breathtakingly incisive look at a nation’s history. It is also, importantly, a superbly crafted literary tour de force. This is a novel of our times, for our times, that captures the many conversations that take place around us and go on in our own heads, giving them an unforgettable shape and form. I can’t wait for readers to engage with Devika Rege’s terrific first book: for me Quarterlife is without a doubt the novel of the year.”

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ABOUT THE BOOK

The Bharat Party has come to power in India after an intensely divisive election. Naren, a jaded Wall Street consultant, is lured by their economic mandate to return to Mumbai. With him is Amanda, eager to escape her New England town through a teaching fellowship in a Muslim-majority slum. Meanwhile, Naren’s younger brother Rohit sets out to explore his cultural roots in the country’s heartland, where he ends up befriending the fiery young men who feed off the Hindu nationalist machine.

From identity politics to corporate avarice to the limits of idealism, each of these characters embodies a hypothesis. As they come to grips with the new India, they also become aware of a deeply fraught and complex milieu. The result is an ever-widening story that builds up to a festive night when all of Mumbai is on the streets, and the simmering unrest erupts.

Devika Rege’s Quarterlife is as much a social and philosophical inquiry as a political bildungsroman. It is also a brilliantly innovative and ambitious work that tests the limits of what the novel can achieve.


PRAISE FOR QUARTERLIFE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEVIKA REGE was born and raised in Pune. Quarterlife is her first novel.

 

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For reviews, excerpts, interviews and more information, please contact Shivendra Singh at
shivendra.singh@harpercollins.co.in

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