Fieldwork as a Sex Object

From the iconic Women's Prize-shortlisted author and activist

"A one-woman, agitprop literary-political movement" — Independent

"One of the most urgent voices of tomorrow" — Harper's Bazaar

I download the video. I mute the audio before replaying it frame by frame, in dread, in desperation. I watch it four times. It is not me. It is my fucking face.

Amrita Chaturvedi goes by Amy. Amy identifies as a communist on Twitter (her bio omits a cameo on reality TV and millionaire daddy who runs the show at Delhi High Court).

When a deepfake porno of her 'forwarded many times' by WhatsApp aunties goes viral, the truth finally catches up. On her birthday, Amy, and allies — a Dalit, a consenting adult code-named the Child Soldier, and white trustafarian India — battle a stoning in the digital town square that could cancel even Kim Kardashian.

Her executioners? An unhinged cartel of virgins styling themselves after V for Vendetta — except these anonymous keyboard warriors are on a merciless crusade to eradicate desi jezebels and Make India Hindu Again.

A literary provocation about incels, influencers and AK-47s where the online turns offline turns bloody, Fieldwork as a Sex Object is not a novel you read but a novel that reads you. It invites every one of us to ask ourselves how much we're prepared to risk for our principles.

"One of fiction's most fiery and unclassifiable" — Guardian

"Her prose is electric, at once brave and poetic and satirical" — Paris Review

"Kandasamy becomes more bold and exciting with each new book" — Skinny