Sakina’s Kiss

A taut story of hidden violence and self-deception from “an Indian Chekhov” (Suketu Mehta)

Venkat considers himself fortunate: he and his wife Viji lead a comfortable life in Bangalore, successfully navigating work and family in a modernizing India that is still rooted in tradition. One Saturday evening, two strange young men come knocking at their door, claiming to have business with their daughter, Rekha. A college senior, Rekha happens to be away visiting relatives in the countryside, and Venkat sends the boys away. But the next day the boys return, and this time they’re not alone. Soon, Venkat and Viji find their quiet life upended–and the seams in their marriage begin to tear open.

Beginning to fear for his daughter’s safety, Venkat is haunted by memories of similar, sinister events from his own youth, culminating in a betrayal and disappearance he’d prefer to forget. As Venkat’s guilt-ridden imagination leaps between knowing and unknowing, evasion and confrontation, Vivek Shanbhag reveals not just the tensions in a marriage or a family, but also a dangerous, encroaching political polarization.

Precise, enigmatic, and suspenseful, Sakina’s Kiss fulfills the promise of Vivek Shanbhag’s lauded debut, Ghachar Ghochar, which Parul Sehgal called “A great Indian novel…elegant, lean, balletic” (The New York Times).