Sense of an Ending

EVEN AS AMITAVA KUMAR’S NOVEL ASKS IF FICTION HAS A ROLE TO PLAY IN OUR LIVES STILL, HIS WRITING SAYS YES

- Aditya Sinha

A TIME OUTSIDE THIS TIME

By Amitava Kumar

ALEPH BOOK COMPANY

₹699; 226 pages

In Amitava Kumar’s A Time Outside This Time, his 11th book, three engrossing stories are nestled in a meta-narrative of “writing about writing” during the current era of authoritarianism’s anti-individualism and the Covid-19 pandemic’s social distancing. And though the author has a different identity from the writer, it is clearly Kumar’s alter-ego that is named Satya, given the book’s preoccupations. Satya is at a creative getaway in Italy when Covid hits, searching for the answer to “Who among your neighbours will look the other way when a figure of authority comes to your door and puts a boot in your face?”