Kiran Nagarkar has the touch of genius. In my opinion, he is amongst the best Indian writers of English fiction of our timesȦ
~Khushwant Singh
Between the ȘIș and Șyouș of this story lies a haunting tale of love, loss and yearning, of personal and human suffering, told with Nagarkarșs trademark sensuality, wit and irony. This is a work of genius that confirms Nagarkarșs as the most significant voice in Indian fiction.
~Nayantara Sahgal
Itșs good to see an old friend in a new avatar; this novel by Kiran Nagarkar is everything a first novel should be: ambitious, experimental and powerful. Just donșt trust the mathematics.
~Jerry Pinto

ȘThe first slap on your bottom as you come into the world tells you that your days of mollycoddling are over. The sooner you understand that, the better you are prepared for the pain and the unhappiness.șYoung and nihilistic, Kushank Purandare is a writer living off the generosity of friends and lovers. There is the ex-flame Aaroti, who is now another manșs wife and whom he refuses to pity; Mrs Reghla alias Kaku who has gouged her eyes out; old Kathavte who lives upstairs and beats his daughters; Raghu whom he accompanies to a famine-struck village where gangsters rule the roost. Disillusioned with the lack of certainty and empathy in a world that is largely incoherent and unsalvageable, Kushank drifts about wallowing in his past and doing odd jobs.Written in Marathi, Kiran Nagarkarșs first book, Saat Sakkam Trechalis is considered a landmark in post-Independence Indian literature. Its wry stream of consciousness and volatile prose made many a critic and reader uneasy when it was first published in 1974. Republished with absorbing pieces that place the novel in the literature of its time, this new edition will introduce the brilliance of Kiran Nagarkar to a new generation of readers.

About the Author

Kiran Nagarkar is one of India’s most highly-regarded writers. His critically acclaimed novel Cuckold was given the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2001. Nagarkar’s other novels include God’s Little Soldier and the Ravan and Eddie trilogy. One of the sharpest critics of India’s socio-political scenario, he is also the author of the play Bedtime Story, which had been banned for seventeen years and the screenplay, Black Tulip, published as a single volume in February 2015. Nagarkar received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2012. Both the Tata Literature Live! and the Chandigarh Literary Fest gave him lifetime achievement awards in 2015 and 2016. His novels have been translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese as well as Marathi. Nagarkar also writes in Marathi and has penned plays and, in fact, began his career in the language in 1974 with his first novel Saat Sakkam Trechalis which is considered a landmark in Indian literature.
Shubha Slee was born in 1937 and studied at Agra University. She moved to Australia in 1964 and died unexpectedly early in 1980.