Unprecedented Times

I couldnt put this book down
VAUHINI VARA

Razor-sharp, audacious
MARIE CLAIRE

Pulses with longing, intelligence, and the slippery thrills of trying to turn life into art

SARA THANKAM MATHEWS

A witty and hilarious debut novel where Malavika Kannan establishes herself as an inimitable voice for the Gen Z.

Which comes first: experience or narrative? Rishi thinks she knows the answer as she arrives on campus for her first year at Stanford. A burnt-out youth climate activist, she used to want to save the world, but now she just wants to have gay sex. Her plan is set-shes going to leave behind the strict trappings of her Indian American childhood in Florida, study literature, experiment with love, and write all about it. Within a few months, she makes her first best friend, falls in love with her situationship, and promptly gets her heart broken.

What is not a part of Rishis plan is the onset of the COVID pandemic. As the outside world becomes a terrifying place, she increasingly finds solace in the friendships shes made. Instead of virtual college, however, Rishi and her classmates join a farm collective, where their political discussions and growing disillusionment collide with sexual tension and responsibility. Its only when those relationships start fracturing under the stress of careless decisions, unrequited crushes, jealousies, and, yes, unprecedented times, that Rishi begins to question her own story.

Unprecedented Times captures the beauty, humor, pain, and straight-up chaos that exist in relationships between best friends and lovers, mothers and daughters, and between storytellers and themselves. Malavika Kannans fresh, arresting novel is a testament to the power of self-narrative for Gen Z American women: of writing oneself into existence where no previous script exists.

One of the Goodreads Editors August Book Picks

One of Harpers Bazaars, Marie Claires, and The Southern Review of BooksBest New Novels of the Summer

One of The Millions, and Altas Most Anticipated Books of the Summer

One of Autostraddle, Book Riot and LGBTQ Reads Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Fiction Books

One of Ms. Magazine, Debutiful, Lit Hubs and BookBrowses Most Anticipated Books of the Year