Manjhi's Mayhem

Tanuj Solanki's last novel, The Machine is Learning, was longlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2020. In 2019, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for his short-story collection, Diwali in Muzaffarnagar. He lives in Gurugram with his wife. He's @tanujsolanki on Twitter and @tansol1986 on Instagram.

Introducing Sewaram Manjhi in this explosive novel that combines a tight mystery and an anti-hero who refuses to back down.


Sewaram Manjhi works as a security guard outside a posh Bombay café. On the surface, he's not unlike millions of invisible Indians who make the city tick, but there is a difference: he holds rage in his heart, and he will go to any length to snatch a chunk of the good life. Enter Santosh, hostess at the restaurant across the street. A damsel in distress, Santosh has a strange request for Manjhi, and far be it from him to say no. What follows is tabaahi - mayhem - as Manjhi finds himself caught in a web of lies and deceit, and on the trail of a bag full of money that will lead to broken noses, bloody heads, sex, seduction, and murder. If he succeeds, Manjhi might finally discover what it means to be in control of one's destiny in a land where birth determines fate.

Manjhi's Mayhem is a pulsating thriller, a potboiler with heart and soul. It is a real and rare pleasure to enter its electrifying world, and I hope this isn't the last I read of the inimitable Sewaram Manjhi.I've been following Tanuj's work since his brilliant short story collection Diwali in Muzaffarnagar and it's fantastic to see him take his sensitive writing chops into hardboiled territory. Manjhi's Mayhem is Indian noir at its finest, and gives us a dark and cinematic Dalit anti-hero to root for. If you're a fan of the genre like I am, you'll relish the delicious twists and turns, the peeks into the shady underbelly of Bombay, and the shadier minds of desperate men and women struggling to make it in this big, bad city.Manjhi's Mayhem is a mesmerizing novel, rooted in the experience of everyday struggle. Solanki's characters are memorable, his storytelling gripping.