Theovers: A Novel

Theovers is about a man in search of aove story. This man, our narrator, is Kailash—a new immigrant, eager to shine. His friends teasingly call him Kalashnikov and sometimes AK-47, even AK. In his account of his years at a university in New York, AK takes us through the bittersweet arc of youth andove. There is discovery and disappointment. There are the brilliant women, Jennifer and Nina and Cai Yan. There is the political texture of campusife and the charismatic professor overseeing these young men and women, Ehsaan Ali (modelled on the real-life Eqbal Ahmad). Manifest in AK’s first years and firstoves is the wild enthusiasm of youth, its idealism, chaotic desires and confusions.A decidedly modern novel that melds story and reportage, anecdote and annotation, picture and text, fragment and essay, Theovers reminds us of the works of John Berger and Teju Cole. Funny, meditative and shot through with waves ofonging, the book explores feelings of discomfort about cultural misunderstandings and theack of clarity between men and women. At heart though, it is an investigation ofove—‘love despite, or in spite of;ove beyond and across dividingines’.