Santanu Bhattacharya at Chapters Berlin

Chapters is welcoming Santanu Bhattacharya for a conversation about his novels, queer life and identity in India. From the personal to the political - through his writing, author Santanu Bhattacharya characters chronicle changing attitudes in India from religion to sexuality. His standout 2023 debut, One Small Voice lives through the rise of Hindu nationalism in India in the form of a coming-of-age story. Winning Observer Best Debut Novel for 2023, this story marked him as an emerging novelist to watch in contemporary Indian fiction. In 2025, he followed this with Deviants, linking intergenerational stories of queer family members in India. Following the lives of these men reflects larger cultural shifts in views on queerness in India. Deviants is a powerful novel about the stories that ignite and inspire the next generation, and won the Rainbow Award and BLF-Atta Galata Prize 2025. This October, we’re looking forward to welcoming him to Chapters for an author conversation with shop owner Sharmaine Lovegrove about identity and how it relates to broader political structures in contemporary India. Expect conversation, reading, and signed copies to bring home to discover his myriad worlds for yourself.