Qayenaat is a middle-aged editor and critic who hovers at the edge of the Bangalore art scene.

Her old friend and former protégé, Baban Reddy, has become a hugely successful artist on the international stage and his return to Bangalore brings back memories and experiences Qayenaat had carefully repressed. In a swirl of heightened emotion, Qayenaat commits an unforgivable crime and flees to rural India in the hope of avoiding its repercussions. There she forms a relationship with the unlikeliest of men – the local monarch whose palace, like the region, has fallen into disrepair.

The Cosmopolitans is a novel of ideas and emotions – one that questions the place of art in modern life – and draws a vivid portrait of a woman at odds with the world. Tender and wry in equal measure, and rich in thought and insight, it confirms Anjum Hasan as one of India’s most exciting contemporary writers.