When a billionaire hotelier and political operator attempts to pit his three daughters against one another, a brutal struggle for primacy begins in this modern-day take on Shakespeare's King Lear. Set in contemporary India, where rich men are gods while farmers starve and water is fast running out, We That Are Young is a story about power, status, and the love of a megalomaniac father. A searing exploration of human fallibility, Preti Taneja's remarkable novel reveals the fragility of the human heart--and its inevitable breaking point.
“Samira, Chris and myself were absolutely unanimous in our love and admiration for this novel, whose scope, ambition, skill and wisdom was, quite simply, awe-inspiring … all three of us sat together, shaking our heads, saying, ‘If this is her first novel, what extraordinary work will come next?’”
'Revelatory. One of the most exquisite and original novels of the year.' - Sunday Times.
'Looks to hold a mirror to our times.' Observer Summer Picks.
'A masterpiece' - The Spectator
'Fierce, freewheeling' - Guardian
'An Instant Classic' - The Times of India
Praise for Kumkum Malhotra:
With its beautifully sculpted surfaces and terrifying depths, this novella literally took my breath away.'
- Maureen Freely
'Preti Taneja is a writer to watch, no doubt about it.'
- Deborah Levy
'Preti Taneja’s beautiful novella is evocative, elegant, sparse and yet enormously full. A story that, to many of us, might seem ‘other’, becomes inclusive and deeply engaging, all of it woven from a single loose thread.'
- Stella Duffy
Preti Taneja's talent lies in doing what all the greatest stories do: creating from the specific - one cast of characters, one place, one culture - a deeply moving universal, one that is perfectly paced and which, once read, lodges itself in the innermost rooms of your heart.