Unprecedented Times

Malavika Kannan establishes herself as an inimitable voice of Gen Z in this piercing coming-of-age debut novel. Which comes first: experience or narrative? Rishi thinks she knows the answer as she arrives on campus for her first year at Stanford. A burnt-out youth climate activist, she used to want to save the world, but now she just wants to have gay sex. Her plan is setshes going to leave behind the strict trappings of her Indian American childhood in Florida, study literature, experiment with love, and write all about it. Within a few months, she makes her first best friend, falls in love with her situationship, and promptly gets her heart broken. What is not a part of Rishis plan is the onset of the COVID pandemic. As the outside world becomes a terrifying place, she increasingly finds solace in the friendships shes made. Instead of virtual college, however, Rishi and her classmates join a farm collective, where their political discussions a