Lunatic in my Head

The 1990s. It’s raining in Shillong. Eight-year old Sophie Das has just realised she is adopted, but there is also the baby kicking inside her mother’s stomach whom she’s dying to meet. IAS aspirant Aman Moondy is planning a first-of-its-kind Happening and praying the lovely Concordella will come. College lecturer Firdaus Ansari is going to finish her thesis, have a hard talk with her boyfriend, and then get out.

Poetic, funny, tender and reflective, Lunatic in my Head is a moving portrait of a small town. And of three people joined to each other in an intricate web, determined to break out of their small town destinies.

"Anjum Hasan's novel is haunting, lyrical and daring, bringing fresh air into the stale confines of Indian writing. A deceptively quiet portrait of a hill town, it is one of the finest works to have come out of the forgotten territories of the North-East." — Siddhartha Deb

Penguin Zubaan, 2007, 2012 | 352 pages
Brass Monkey Books Australia | 2010
Shortlisted for the Crossword Fiction Award 2008
Buy from Amazon

FROM THE REVIEWS

“[written] in unusually rich and precise language… without a doubt a major work.”
Mint

“Its power to turn the subculture of dreams into a contemporary political fable will make Lunatic a classic in the years to come. We will be proud to have been its earliest readers.”
Biblio

“… a very confident debut.”
Business Standard

“The tone of Lunatic in my Head is gentle and thoughtful, it respects the reader by never falling into the trap of trying to impress…. Hasan, in other words, has done her job.”
The Hindu Literary Review

“Anjum Hasan tells a compelling story and she tells it exceedingly well.”
Hindustan Times

“Lunatic in my Head is one of the few Indian English novels I have read in recent times and found genuinely worth reading.”
Sahara Times