Preti Taneja studied theology at Cambridge University and then won a
Guardian scholarship to train in print journalism. As a human rights reporter and editor, she covered minority rights in Iraq, Kosovo, India and Rwanda, among other places. In 2009, she co-founded the collective ERA Films to make investigative, campaigning documentaries for international and national non-governmental organizations. She is also the co-founder and editor of Visual Verse, an online anthology of art and words. She is currently researching on Shakespeare adaptations in contemporary conflict and post-conflict zones in the department of English and comparative literary studies and the centre for human rights in practice at Warwick University. In 2014, her novella
Kumkum Malhotra won the Gatehouse Press New Fictions prize.
We That Are Young is her debut novel.
Jivan Singh, bastard son, returns to Delhi after fifteen years of exile to find a city on fire with protests and in the grip of drought. On the same day, Devraj, father of Jivan's childhood playmates, founder of India's most important Company, announces his retirement, demanding daughterly love in exchange for shares. Sita, his youngest child, refuses to play, turning her back on the marriage he has arranged. Her sisters Gargi and Radha must take over the Company and cement their father's legacy. As they struggle to make their names, a family and an empire begin to unravel.
We That Are Young is Shakespeare's King Lear told as a devastating commentary on contemporary India. From Delhi mansions to luxury hotels, from city slums to the streets of Kashmir, from palace to wayside, Preti Taneja recasts an old tale in fresh, eviscerating prose that bursts with energy and fierce, beautifully measured rage. This is the story of a country that, like the old king, is descending into madness.
In a brilliant, sharp new telling of
King Lear, Preti Taneja shows her profound understanding of not just of Shakespeare and India, but of human nature itself. Heartbreaking. A poetic tour de force.Taneja has given us that rarest of beasts, a page-turner that's also unabashedly political - with the complex, ambiguous, fiercely felt politics of our time.Revelatory ... Urgent and irresistible ... One of the most exquisite and original novels of the year.Wonderful ... Looks set to hold a mirror to our timesIn years to come, Preti Taneja will be known as one of the UK's most important writers.The writing is stunning ... turns of phrase are to be savoured, imagery basked in. A literary feast-Preti Taneja deserves all the commendations.Utterly engrossing, very smart, very moving.
We That Are Young is subtle, ambitious and highly original.Preti Taneja has written an enthralling, brave and very important book.A remarkable picture of contemporary India. Taneja's sensuous writing brings women's predicaments to life ... from Shakespearean times to the present day in large portions of the world it is a chilling warning and a sad truth.Sharp, cogent and evocative ... The great appeal of
We That Are Young concerns the serving of justice - discovering who gets what, as opposed to who deserves what.A truly magnificent novel: epic in scope and fizzing with originality. Taneja's is a powerful and arresting voice.
We That Are Young tells a piercing tale of modern India - and of modern womanhood - that is brutally honest. It lingers in the mind long after the last page.An absolutely fantastic book. The Lear background made it feel as though I was rereading a very old and much loved novel for the second time, picking up on new and fascinating thoughts and connections, even while I forgot that Lear was there at all.
We That Are Young is beautifully, beautifully written.Think
King Lear with a wry sense of humour and a heavy dash of Bollywood and Mahabharata melodrama. The novel manages to grapple with colonial inheritances, gender roles, nationalism, 'India Shining' development, and ecofeminism. What is exemplary is how it manages to do all this while remaining a riveting page-turner.One of the most ambitious debuts of the year.[L]ike Shakespeare, Taneja can write both poetically and downright crudely-sometimes on the same page. Her language encompasses a wide spectrum ranging from colloquial English to whole sentences of romanized Hindi to the modern compressions used on social media. Whatever the mode, Taneja's prose is always intense, detailed and engrossing. Readers will feel the touch of a five-star hotel's feather pillow as vividly as they smell the sewers of an industrial town's slum tenements.I found myself closing the book from time to time to catch my breath, to make sense of the quiet terror Taneja can make one feel.Detonating right from the hearts of many villains,
We That Are Young creates a devastating tale of kinship, loyalty, greed, lust, love, and moral frictions.
