Our City That Year

A Novel

“I highlighted just about every line in this book, and I can’t think of a better novel to make sense of our current era.” —Molly Odintz, CrimeReads

From the International Booker Prize-winning author-translator duo of Tomb of Sand, a powerful, kaleidoscopic novel about a fractured society, loosely based on the gathering violence that eventuated in the demolition of the Babri Mosque by religious extremists in 1992.

In an unnamed city in India, violence is erupting between Hindus and Muslims, each side viewing the other with suspicion, rage, and blame. As their identities sharpen, friends and colleagues turn against each other. Hospital beds fill up and classrooms empty out. Curfews are imposed. Residents flee en masse.

Three intellectuals find themselves paralyzed by anxiety and fear. Shruti, a creative writer, spends her time writing and rewriting the same sentence. Hanif is sidelined by his academic department for his secular beliefs. And Sharad finds it increasingly difficult to connect with Hanif, his childhood friend. The only one left to bear witness is the novel’s unnamed narrator, who hurries to transcribe everything that’s happening.

Explosive, raw, and uncompromising, Our City That Year unfolds in a time of rising uncertainty and dread, when nothing will go back to being as it was before. Twenty-five years after its original publication in Hindi, Shree’s clarion call to bear witness to the toxic ideology of religious nationalism is timelier than ever, speaking to the growing divisions across global borders.

Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell

Powerful Must Read

Our City That Year by Geetanjali Shree is a stunning, unsettling, and deeply humane novel. Set in a city unraveling under communal tension, it captures fear, silence, and resistance with haunting precision. Shree’s prose, translated beautifully by Daisy Rockwell, is spare yet lyrical, full of pauses and half-sentences that mirror the chaos of the times.

What makes the book unforgettable is its blend of urgency and tenderness. Amid curfews and rumours, there are still moments of humour, love, and reflection. Though rooted in India, its themes feel universal and heartbreakingly relevant. A powerful, essential read that stays with you long after the last page.