Quarterlife

An acutely portrayed and ambitious reckoning … The novel’s inventive structure, intricate restraint and smart foreshadowing work holds tight … The inevitable, when it does arrive, is an overwhelming punch to the gut. – Sana Goyal * Guardian *
Quarterlife is a revelation, full to the brim with muscular provocations on democracy, progress, radicalisation, majoritarianism, modernity and tradition. It is also highly readable … and deserves the widest attention. – Yagnishsing Dawoor * Observer *
Powerful, demanding, rewarding. – Anthony Cummins * Daily Mail *
A stunning debut whose concerns reach way beyond India’s borders … Quarterlife foreshadows the impact of a lurch to the radical right, which is only recently being felt in Europe and the US. – Jane Wallace * Asian Review of Books *
Quarterlife should be read by anyone seeking to understand the political and social tensions at work in twenty-first-century India … Rege’s imaginative sympathy includes voices and perspectives that a lesser novelist would discount. – Hari Kunzru, author of BLUE RUIN
A fearless achievement … An urgent, vital orchestration … [Rege’s] seriousness of purpose runs like an electrical wire through the book. – James Wood * The New Yorker *
What a blazingly original voice, what a fiercely intelligent engagement with contemporary world politics and culture. Devika Rege is at the forefront of a new generation of authors. – Vauhini Vara, author of THE IMMORTAL KING RAO
What begins as a novel of ideas becomes the secret history of a nation. A superb read … Both moving and inspiring. – Jeet Thayil, author of NARCOPOLIS
Dazzling, sophisticated and wholly achieved in its ambition, Quarterlife emerges out of the tradition of the philosophical novel. Devika Rege is a transformative novelist. – Maureen McClane, author of MY POETICS
Finally, a novel about our roiling times by a writer of clear-eyed empathy, the ability to listen closely and to step out of cosmopolitan cocoons. Utterly masterful and moving. – Gauri Gill, author of ACTS OF APPEARANCE
A landmark novel … Rege has a vast descriptive repertoire, is willing to take astonishing risks with structure, and is immaculate in her numerous interiority dives. Her hand is so sure, it’s often impossible to believe that Quarterlife is a debut. – Tanuj Solanki * The Indian Express *
What’s especially exciting is the freshness in Rege’s turn of phrase - the rhythm in her sentences feels new, and marks the arrival of a voice we have not heard before in Indian literature in English. – Swati Daftuar * The Hindu *
The most accomplished political novel of the Modi years. * Granta *
The scope of the book’s ideas and the textured rendering of its characters contribute an oceanic feeling of simultaneous scale and intimacy … By a distance the best debut of the year. – Sam Sacks * Wall Street Journal *
Bears witness to an extraordinary moment in history and does not let you look away either. An elegant, ambitious debut … a testament to the clarity truth can gain from craft. – Shubhangi Tiwari * Scroll India *
The literary equivalent of a Diego Rivera mural … Quarterlife is an essential work of fiction … It is one of the most ambitious literary works to come out in years. – John M. Clum * New York Journal of Books *
One of the best character-driven novels out in India this year: this is wholly about how people think, how their perceptions shape their behaviour, and how those perceptions may change. – Madhulika Liddle * Open Magazine *
With such brutality to contend with, it is almost shocking to find such delicacy of attention, such depth of listening, and such ability to hold us, simply and directly, with wisdom and with grief. – Sampurna Chattarji * National Herald *
A contemporary novel that cohesively sketches the expanse of India’s social and political landscape with acute clarity … An easy five stars. – Simran Pavecha * Youth Ki Awaaz *
In the fashion of the big novels by Salman Rushdie or Amitav Gosh – Anuradha Marwah * Biblio: A Review of Books *
Quarterlife is that rare novel that dares to speak differently … Ambitious this novel certainly is, but its boldness is backed by Rege’s unmistakable commitment to storytelling and her sheer talent for it. – Madhavi S. Mahadevan * Moneycontrol.com *
Quarterlife is a deeply intelligent social novel, its characters both singularly interesting individuals and vectors of cultural and political forces beyond their grasp. – Merve Emre * Public Books *

Devika Rege was born in Pune, India. She is a graduate of the universities of Mumbai and Iowa. Quarterlife, her debut novel, was a finalist for several Indian awards and won the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award and the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman for Best Fiction.

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