“A shimmering assault on the Zeitgeist,” The New Yorker
Amitava Kumar interview in BOMB Magazine.
Amitava Kumar interview in Bookforum with Alexander Chee.
Profile in Publishers Weekly, click here.
Amitava Kumar conversation on the Maris Review.
“An ingenious work of fiction,” Mint Lounge.
Amitava Kumar interview on The Book Show with Joe Donahue.
Ottawa Writers Festival podcast with Sean Wilson.
Amitava Kumar interview in the Los Angeles Times.
Amitava Kumar interview in the Hindu.
Amitava Kumar interview at Newslaundry.
Amitava Kumar’s “Essential Services” (3-minute video)
Excerpt from the novel in Scroll.in.
Literature to Fight Fake News, LitHub.
Literary Books with Art, The Atlantic.
“A brilliant and dark reflection of our times,” The Chronogram.
“A searing reflection of a world riddled by fake news,” The Telegraph.
“a novel that argues, by resisting both disinformation and the dogma of facts
— and convinces me — that writing and reading fiction is the best way to
make sense of our times.” — Financial Times
“navigates the mists of contemporary deception with a penetrating
intelligence and keen sense of paradox” — Times Literary Supplement
“erudite and elegant,” The Daily Star
Advance Praise for A Time Outside This Time:
“Kumar’s marvelous book channels Orwell in its outline of our dilemmas with disinformation. Sensuous and searching, this is an absorbing portrait of an inspired artist in the midst of our maddening cultural moment.”
—Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies
“In this age of lies, can we rely on fiction to cover the facts? Amitava Kumar’s entertaining and incisive A Time Outside This Time provides a convincing answer. This novel is both necessary and beautiful.”
—Cheryl Strayed, author of Brave Enough
“A brilliant, expansive account of one man’s attempt to follow his moral compass through a maze of disinformation and discord. Kumar has an uncanny ability to find and illuminate the radiance that remains in our half-ruined world.”
—Jenny Offill, author of Weather
“Amitava Kumar has the precious ability to write across borders and cultures. This brilliant, anguished novel offers an essential vantage point to our agitated and bewildering world.”
—Joseph O’Neil, author of Netherland
“Why write when things are falling apart? More importantly: how to write when the might of fiction is abused by the worst, when lies are eating through what seemed like reality just a moment ago? These are perennial novelist questions, and A Time Outside This Time confronts them head on. Amitava Kumar’s prose is beautiful, deft and full of memorable details; his narration is marked by immense curiosity, kindness and clarity of thought. He seems to be writing in real time, trying to comprehend, with admirable hope and patience, how to retain faith in literature, in democracy, in the kindness of others. A Time Outside This Time is a courageous book, incredibly relevant for the present moment and crucial for imagining a better future.”
—Aleksandar Hemon, author of The Lazarus Project