Deepanjana is a cultural critic, an editor and filled with the best of intentions to not roll her eyes at the world at large. (The last has proved to be more of a challenge than the first two.) Over the past 20 years, she has worked for a range of publications, including Time Out Mumbai, Firstpost, Newslaundry, Hindustan Times and Film Companion, while squirrelling away time to read and write books.

Deepanjana is also the author of The Painter, a biography of the artist Raja Ravi Varma; the feminist thriller Hush A Bye Baby; and the award-winning Puchku series of books for young readers. She co-founded the podcast The Lit Pickers and runs a popular books newsletter called Dear Reader.

Deepanjana Pal’s dazzling new novel, represented by A Suitable Agency, follows the lives of two Bombay women as they walk the tightrope between the personal, political and professional. Equal parts subversive and hilarious, Deepanjana waltzes effortlessly through the complexities of contemporary womanhood, from the power struggles in the workplace to the resilience of chosen families, the radical comfort of female friendships, and the vulnerability of new love. This is a novel portrait of the modern Indian woman and the times she must navigate.