A Time Outside This Time

Description

From the acclaimed author of Immigrant, Montana comes a one-of-a-kind novel about memory, politics, a world of lies, and the ways in which truth can be not only stranger than fiction, but a fiction of its own.

When a writer named Satya attends a prestigious artists retreat, he finds the pressures of the outside world wont let up: the US president rages online; a dangerous virus envelops the globe; and the twenty-four-hour news cycle throws fuel on every fire. These Orwellian interruptions begin to crystallize into an idea for his new novel, Enemies of the People, about the lies we tell ourselves and each other. Satya scours his life for moments where truth bends toward the imagined, and misinformation is mistaken as fact.

As Satya sifts through newspaper clippings, the Presidents tweets, childhood memories from India, and moments as an immigrant, a husband, father, and teacher, Amitava Kumars A Time Outside This Time captures our feverish political moment with a precisely observant intelligence and an eye for the uncanny. A brilliant meditation on life in a post-truth era, this piercing novel captures the sentiment on all our minds, of how impossible it can feel to remember, or to imagine, a time outside of this one.

‘As Satya uncovers the “truth of fiction,” Kumar provides a shimmering assault on the Zeitgeist.’ New Yorker

Author Information

Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist. He was born in Ara, India, and grew up in the nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty, and delicious mangoes. Kumar is the author of the novel Immigrant, Montana, as well as several other books of nonfiction and fiction. In 2016, Kumar was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (General Nonfiction) as well as a Ford Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists. He lives in Poughkeepsie, in upstate New York, where he is Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College.