Aruni Kashyap in conversation with Bhakti Shringarpure about How To Date A Fanatic, queer campus novel about a group of characters whose lives are torn asunder by right-wing political violence in northern India.
About the book: In this compassionate, poignant novel set in contemporary India, a young professor searches for connection and love during a time of political and cultural upheaval. As political tensions rise precipitously across India, Rohit returns to Delhi University to teach and gets caught in a web of unrequited love with his friend Dhruv. To alleviate his inevitable heartbreak, Rohit seeks relationships with other men in the city, until he meets and embarks on a delicate new romance with the effervescent Sayan, a literature student he hopes will be the answer to getting over Dhruv.
Rohit’s life soon becomes more complicated as the country’s political tensions erupt on campus, sparking a turbulent student-led movement that entangles Rohit when Dhruv joins the fray, a tipping point that changes Rohit’s life forever. Set against the vibrant, volatile tapestry of modern India, Rohit and his friends must learn to navigate the challenges and triumphs of queer life to survive in an unpredictable political landscape. Propulsive, tense, and charged with humor and tenderness, How to Date a Fanatic is an exploration of identity, connection, and the enduring hope for a better future in a rapidly changing world.
Aruni Kashyap is a writer, translator, and academic. He is the author of The Way You Want To Be Loved, The House With a Thousand Stories, and editor of the story collection How to Tell the Story of an Insurgency. He is the translator of four novels from Assamese to English. Aruni is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing program at the University of Georgia (Athens).
Bhakti Shringarpure is the creative editor of the Radical Books Collective.
Previous Book Clubs and Events'
