The book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2018
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2018
Guardian’s Best Books of 2017
Daily Telegraph’s Best Books of 2017
Observer Best Books of 2017
Financial Times Best Books of 2017
“Meena Kandasamy’s vivid, sharp and precise writing makes a triumph of When I Hit You.”
—Guardian
Set in modern India, the unnamed narrator falls in love with a university professor and agrees to be his wife. Based on the author’s own experience of marriage, soon the newly-wed experiences extreme violence at her husband’s hands and finds herself socially isolated. Intellectual and physical cruelty is explored. Yet hope keeps her alive and she knows that writing can be her salvation. Writing becomes her supreme act of defiance and as the subtitle suggests, the novel is also about the act of writing itself and the way that fiction and stories can help you escape.
Though a harrowing story, Kandasamy’s writing is also funny, tender and lyrical. When I Hit You is smart, fierce, and courageous.
The author
Meena Kandasamy
Meena Kandasamy is a poet, fiction writer, translator, and activist who lives in Chennai and London. She has published two collections of poetry, Touch and Ms. Militancy, and the critically acclaimed novel, The Gypsy Goddess. This is her second novel.
Press
- May 28 2020
WHEN I HIT YOU is a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice!
— The New York Times - May 6 2020
“Kandasamy is showing us the sleight of hand in slow motion, and grinning from ear to ear as she does so.”
— Los Angeles Review of Books - May 4 2020
“...a sharp, scalding novel that is not soon forgotten.”
— ForeWord Reviews - Apr 8 2020
“Meena Kandasamy on the Fine Line Between Fiction and Nonfiction”
— Literary Hub - Mar 17 2020
“Urgent, searing.”
— The New York Times - Mar 1 2020
“...a call-to-action to believe and support all women.”
— Booklist