★ “What makes this novel unique is the feisty voice of the narrator and the rich details of her intellectual interests and her husband's leftist politics in contemporary India. […] So long as society does not listen to women, this novel shows, no woman will truly be safe.”—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
★ “Kandasamy’s thoughtful deep dive into the nature of abuse and its effects is a call-to-action to believe and support all women.”―Booklist (Starred review)
“Explosive...Meena Kandasamy’s vivid, sharp and precise writing makes a triumph of When I Hit You.”―The Guardian
“Urgent, searing.”—The New York Times Book Review
“When I Hit You is a sharp, scalding novel that is not soon forgotten.”—ForeWord Reviews
“Kandasamy is showing us the sleight of hand in slow motion, and grinning from ear to ear as she does so.”—Los Angeles Review of Books
“Courageous and brave and disturbing and will stay with you for a long time”―Stylist
“Fierce and unforgettable”―Culturefly
“Brilliant . . . Astonishing . . . By far the best read of the year”―Women Writers
“Read it as an extended prose poem, a feminist anthem, an experiment with life. But do read it.”—The Daily O
“A searing analysis of an all-too-common predicament.”—Rebecca Rose, Financial Times
‘Best Books of 2017’ “Searing…I read it in a single sitting.”—Fatima Bhutto, author of Songs of Blood And Sword and The Shadow Of The Crescent Moon
★ 2020-01-13
A novel about contemporary Indian intellectuals highlights an age-old problem.
The unnamed protagonist escaped from her abusive husband five years ago when this powerful novel opens, so the suspense is not whether she'll survive but whether she'll be allowed to tell her own story. The woman's mother has been telling the story to relatives, neighbors, and circles of friends, focusing on the physical signs of her daughter's abuse and escape—her thinning hair, her cracked heels. But the survivor has decided to tell the story herself, which then becomes the novel at hand. Kandasamy's brilliant and at times brutally funny narrator leads the reader through her emotional journey, from confident college student then published writer to battered wife. She details the unhappy affair that led her to take refuge in her husband's arms and then step by step reveals how he managed to isolate her from friends and family, taking control of a joint email account, managing all social activities. Most damning of all, the woman shows how everyone from the woman's parents to her friends and her doctors either looked the other way or urged her to give her husband another chance. This is a story that could take place in any culture at any time period. What makes this novel unique is the feisty voice of the narrator and the rich details of her intellectual interests and her husband's leftist politics in contemporary India. Kandasamy (The Gypsy Goddess, 2014, etc.) divides her time between Chennai and London, and the novel was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.
So long as society does not listen to women, this novel shows, no woman will truly be safe.