Arnav Das Sharma is a New Delhi-based author and journalist. His work has appeared in publications across the country, like the
Caravan,
Vice, the
Indian Express,
Outlook, the Wire, Scroll and
Hindustan Times. He has also held positions at Reuters and, most recently, the Quint. He's working on his second book.
Dust and ash engulf the land, dry rivers snake the earth and a phantom darkness looms over everyone. As most of India reels from this environmental catastrophe, water replaces oil as the most valuable commodity and cities get infested with gangs and powerful religious figures.
In this dystopia, the hi-tech Millennium City, which is inhabited by the rich, overlooks the quarters of the poor. Millennium City gives rise to a form of technology that manufactures artificial humans in laboratories.
Born in one such lab, Haksh does the forbidden: he falls in love with Chhaya, a human.
A coming-of-age novel about violence and transgression, Darklands is about one thing above all: love-both all-consuming and redemptive.
Darklands is much more than a compelling first novel; it is a creditable literary achievement in many ways-the most admirable one among them is that Arnav Das Sharma could reimagine
Wuthering Heights with such precision and render it with amazing poise. With his selection of theme and style of storytelling, Sharma has produced a remarkable novel
