HarperCollins to publish Manu Joseph's new novel

One of the finest contemporary Indian writers in English, Manu Joseph is all set to publish an extraordinary work of fiction this September.

Publisher HarperCollins said, Joseph's new novel, "Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous," will be published under its prestigious "Fourth Estate" imprint in September 2017.

Udayan Mitra, Publisher-Literary at HarperCollins India, termed the novel one of the "most powerful and inventive works of fiction I have read in a long time".

"It is at once desperately brave, and wildly, uproariously funny; and it is a book that could only have come from Manu Joseph's pen."

He said the novel begins with a building collapse in Mumbai. In the debris is a man who is mumbling something in delirium. It appears that he is passing on the real-time movements of a young Muslim couple. Elsewhere, a young intelligence agent is assigned to shadow two terror suspects, one of whom is a teenager and the sweetheart of her street, Laila.

Taking up a slice of recent history that is replete with social, political, communal and gender tension, Manu proceeds to lampoon the entire system -- not just politicians, the bureaucracy, law enforcement officials and lackeys, but investigative journalists, social activists, social media champions, and indeed the common man.

Joseph is the much acclaimed author of "Serious Men" and "The Illicit Happiness of Other People".

--IANS

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