“Kashmir is my homeland. In the face of every renewed silencing of Kashmiri voices, us Kashmiris will continue telling our many stories in different forms, forums, and genres. My novel Future Tense is part of the vital oeuvre of narrating the histories and herstories of the many different real and imagined Kashmiris that exist on maps, in the hearts, in the people’s memories, says author Nitasha Kaul as she gears up for her new novel, titled Future Tense. She adds, “This is a novel that was birthed post 2016 uprising and it will be read post a profound loss of Kashmiri autonomy in 2019. It has been a work born of love and sacrifice, and I hope that you who read this will keep the stories of Kashmiris alive in your head and heart.”
According to the author, the characters in Future Tense have inherited the many tragedies and contradictions that belong to Kashmir. The paths of the characters intersect and diverge against the factual and fictional backdrop of contemporary Kashmir, with its friendships, betrayals, floods, uprisings, and human shields.Based out of London, Kaul, a multidisciplinary academic and novelist has worked on themes relating to identity, democracy, political economy, feminist and postcolonial critiques, Kashmir, and Bhutan. Her first novel Residue was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize.
Rahul Soni, Senior Commissioning Editor, HarperCollins Publishers, says, “Future Tense is an important new novel from Nitasha Kaul, one of the most courageous voices around. It effectively, empathetically dramatizes the lives and concerns of a new generation in present-day Kashmir, and should be read by anyone seeking to understand the human cost of the conflict.”
Future Tense
By Nitasha Kaul
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 308
Price: J499