Amitava Kumar's picture

Amitava Kumar


India (b.1963)

Amitava Kumar is the author, most recently, of a novel Immigrant, Montana (forthcoming from Knopf in the US, Faber in the UK, and in translation elsewhere). An earlier version of the novel was recently published in India under the title The Lovers. Kumar has written several works of literary non-fiction, including the prize-winning book A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb, described by the New York Times as a “perceptive and soulful” meditation on “the cultural and human repercussions” of the global war on terror. His other titles include Passport Photos, Bombay-London-New York, Husband of a Fanatic, A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna, and Lunch with a Bigot: The Writer in the World. Kumar’s first novel, Home Products, was short-listed for India’s premier literary award and republished in the US under the title Nobody Does the Right Thing. His writings have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The Nation, The New York Times, The New Yorker.com, Bookforum, Kenyon Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Critical Inquiry, Boston Review, Caravan, The Indian Express, The New Statesman, American Prospect, and numerous other venues. “Pyre,” an essay first published in Granta, was chosen by Jonathan Franzen for The Best American Essays 2016. Kumar serves on the editorial board of several publications and is the script-writer and narrator of two documentary films: “Pure Chutney” (1997) and “Dirty Laundry” (2005). Professor Kumar teaches classes that mainly deal with: reportage; the essay-form, both in prose and film; cities; literatures describing the global movement of goods and people; war; memory-work.
 

Genres: Historical
 
New and upcoming books
February 2024

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My Beloved Life
 
Novels
   Home Products (2007)
     aka Nobody Does the Right Thing
   The Lovers (2017)
   Immigrant, Montana (2018)
   A Time Outside This Time (2021)
   My Beloved Life (2024)
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Non fiction show
 
Amitava Kumar recommends
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Hope (2023)
Andrew Ridker
"This is a novel full of hope and heartbreak, just like life. If a novel is meant to tell us what it means to be alive, then Hope tells what it means to live and love in the contemporary moment. Andrew Ridker is remarkably observant, equal parts ruthlessness and compassion. One of the triumphs of the book is that no one is denied their humanity. Amidst the downsizing of hope in evidence everywhere, this witty novel's main gift is its large-hearted humanism."
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Vladimir (2022)
Julia May Jonas
"A reminder that the best art involves a search for truth. Vladimir is funny, clear, awake, vivid."
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A Passage North (2021)
Anuk Arudpragasam
"Anuk Arudpragasam’s first book already showed what a fine novelist he was and this second novel provides proof, if any were needed, that he is a major writer, vastly accomplished. Life is short but remembering is long. In the aftermath of war, Anuk Arudpragasam’­­s rich, rewarding sentences return the reader to all that is living."

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