Like Being Alive Twice By Dharini Bhaskar

Is there a moment so pliant that we can nudge it towards any future we desire?

Sometimes I believe that there is such a moment. In a lifetime, once.

In an unnamed nation that’s about to rupture, Priyamvada (Poppy), a Hindu, and Tariq, a Muslim, are in love. In a few hours, Tariq intends to propose; Poppy intends to say yes. Both assume that they’ll fend off political blowback. For, surely, their privilege will protect them.

But will it? Will Poppy and Tariq sustain a love so wholesome, so cossetted, that it remains impervious to a dystopian state? Or will the two be rent apart by chance and circumstance? What will their lives look like as they plunge into a brave new future, together or apart?

Written in alternating chapters, Like Being Alive Twice trails fact and possibility—the tale as-it-was and the tale as-it-could-have-been-if-only—arranging and rearranging, tweaking and nudging; hoping to find a lasting peace in one or the other story; hoping, above all else, that such peace will prevail over murderous times.

Politically urgent, stylistically intrepid and relentless in its commitment to scrutinizing love, loss and the language of privilege, Like Being Alive Twice tells of the frantic pursuit of life piled upon life, even as a bloodied world closes in.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Bombay, Dharini has at various points also called the UK, Greece, Delhi and Bangalore home.

Her debut novel, These, Our Bodies Possessed by Light (Hachette India), was shortlisted for the 2020 JCB Prize for Literature, Tata Literature Live! (First Book: Fiction) and the Valley of Words book awards. She has been published in the anthology Day’s End Stories; is a columnist for the Free Press Journal; and has contributed to Hindu BLink, Arre, Firstpost, Mint Lounge and Vogue, among other publications.

Dharini has spent over a decade in publishing, including as editorial director of Simon and Schuster India. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, painting, backpacking and taking long bike rides with her little boy.

The official release for the book is in March 2024.