We That Are Young by Preti Taneja

JIVAN SINGH, the bastard scion of the Devraj family, returns to his childhood home after a long absence – only to witness the unexpected resignation of the ageing patriarch from the vast corporation he founded, the Devraj Company. On the same day, Sita, Devraj’s youngest daughter, absconds – refusing to submit to the marriage her father wants for her. Meanwhile, Radha and Gargi, Sita’s older sisters, are handed the Company… And so begins a brutal, deathly struggle for power, ranging over the luxury hotels and spas of New Delhi and Amritsar, the Palaces and slums of Napurthala, to Srinagar, Kashmir. 

Told in astonishing prose – a great torrent of words and imagery – We that are young is a modern-day King Lear that bursts with energy and fierce, beautifully measured rage. Set against the backdrop of the anti-corruption riots in 2011–2012, it provides startling insights into modern India, the clash of youth and age, the hectic pace of life in one of the world’s fastest growing economies – and the ever-present spectre of death. More than that, this is a novel about the human heart. And its breaking point.

PRETI TANEJA was born in the UK to Indian parents and spent most of her childhood holidays in New Delhi. She has worked as a human rights reporter and filmmaker on Iraq, in Jordan, Rwanda, and Kosovo, and her work has been published in the Guardian and Open Democracy. A fellow at Warwick University, in 2014 Preti’s novella Kumkum Malhotra won the Gatehouse Press New Fictions Prize. She is also the editor of Visual Verse and was selected as an AHRC/ BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker for 2014.