Penguin to publish writer Meenakshi Reddy Madhavans next novel
New Delhi Nov 18 PTI Penguin Random House India PRHI on Thursday announced the acquisition of contemporary writer Meenakshi Reddy Madhavans new work of fiction Soft Animal a novel about a modern Indian marriage against the backdrop of the first pandemic induced lockdown in 2020Soft Animal to be published in 2023 is author Madhavans eighth book She debuted as a writer with the bestseller You Are Here a semi-autobiographical book also published by Penguin in 2008We all wonder sometimes what it would be like to be stuck on a desert island with someone maybe your life partner and what that 247 forced intimacy would do for and to a relationship COVID and the isolation it entailed gave me a way to imagine and write about what would happen within a marriage to someone who like me lives in an apartment in one of Delhis affluent colonies surrounded by all sides by the self-complacencies and self-absorption of our privileged lives said MadhavanIt is a story of 36-year-old Mallika Rao enduring an unhappy marriage just as India embarks on its surreal Covid-19 lockdownMallikas collisions with her neighbourhood — including a voyeuristic pensioner she befriends — and explorations of her inner self provide a darkly playful and incisive commentary on modern relationships and the Indian social mores that dog themAccording to the publishers unfolding in urgent present tense with conspiratorial flashbacks and footnotes the book invites readers into an uncomfortably intimate spaceMeenakshi Reddy Madhavan reinvents herself with every book and that has always been a joy for me to observe both as reader and editor At the same time she pulls no punches when it comes to that strongest weapon in her arsenal her ability to scrutinize the self-delusion of her characters with acuity and without cruelty Her new book Soft Animal is no exception said Manasi Subramaniam executive Editor and head of Literary Rights PRHIMadhavan previously authored books include The One Who Swam with the Fishes 2017 Before And Then After 2015 Cold Feet 2012 and The Life Times of Layla The Ordinary 2010 PTI MG MAH MAH
New Delhi Nov 18 PTI Penguin Random House India PRHI on Thursday announced the acquisition of contemporary writer Meenakshi Reddy Madhavans new work of fiction Soft Animal a novel about a modern Indian marriage against the backdrop of the first pandemic induced lockdown in 2020Soft Animal to be published in 2023 is author Madhavans eighth book She debuted as a writer with the bestseller You Are Here a semi-autobiographical book also published by Penguin in 2008We all wonder sometimes what it would be like to be stuck on a desert island with someone maybe your life partner and what that 247 forced intimacy would do for and to a relationship COVID and the isolation it entailed gave me a way to imagine and write about what would happen within a marriage to someone who like me lives in an apartment in one of Delhis affluent colonies surrounded by all sides by the self-complacencies and self-absorption of our privileged lives said MadhavanIt is a story of 36-year-old Mallika Rao enduring an unhappy marriage just as India embarks on its surreal Covid-19 lockdownMallikas collisions with her neighbourhood — including a voyeuristic pensioner she befriends — and explorations of her inner self provide a darkly playful and incisive commentary on modern relationships and the Indian social mores that dog themAccording to the publishers unfolding in urgent present tense with conspiratorial flashbacks and footnotes the book invites readers into an uncomfortably intimate spaceMeenakshi Reddy Madhavan reinvents herself with every book and that has always been a joy for me to observe both as reader and editor At the same time she pulls no punches when it comes to that strongest weapon in her arsenal her ability to scrutinize the self-delusion of her characters with acuity and without cruelty Her new book Soft Animal is no exception said Manasi Subramaniam executive Editor and head of Literary Rights PRHIMadhavan previously authored books include The One Who Swam with the Fishes 2017 Before And Then After 2015 Cold Feet 2012 and The Life Times of Layla The Ordinary 2010 PTI MG MAH MAH
