‘In the consumption of art, labels need to be thrown out’: Santanu Bhattacharya on his ‘queer’ novel

When I met Santanu Bhattacharya at the Kerala Literature Festival, I forgot to press the “record” button on my phone. He was answering my questions long before I’d asked him anything. (Even declaring, “Wow. I’ve started the interview, and it hasn’t even begun!”). He hadn’t yet seen a physical copy of his latest book’s Indian edition, so he wanted to go to the bookstore. I pulled out my copy of Deviants, watching him gleefully flip the pages, admitting without any fluster: “I’m never going to get used to this feeling.”

Bhattacharya’s first novel, One Small Voice, was an Observer best debut novel of 2023 and was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and the Society of Authors’ Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize. One Small Voice is the story of a passive bystander heeding what’s expected of him, questioning his sense of normalcy at the rise of populist presumptions, and scuffling with what it means to ignore your past, individually and collectively. With Deviants, Santanu asks some of the same questions but in a sprawling, modern epic style. Through three queer characters from three different generations – grand uncle, uncle, and nephew – the novel queries our inherited histories, the legacies we leave behind, and the dynamic landscape…

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