A Time Outside This Time

(Paperback)

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From the acclaimed author of Immigrant, Montana comes a one-of-a-kind novel about memory, politics, a world of lies, and the ways in which truth can be not only stranger than fiction, but a fiction of its own. When a writer named Satya attends a prestigious artists' retreat, he finds the pressures of the outside world won't let up: the US president rages online; a dangerous virus envelops the globe; and the twenty-four-hour news cycle throws fuel on every fire. These Orwellian interruptions begin to crystallize into an idea for his new novel, Enemies of the People, about the lies we tell ourselves and each other. Satya scours his life for moments where truth bends toward the imagined, and misinformation is mistaken as fact. As Satya sifts through newspaper clippings, the President's tweets, childhood memories from India, and moments as an immigrant, a husband, father, and teacher, Amitava Kumar's A Time Outside This Time captures our feverish political moment with a precisely observant intelligence and an eye for the uncanny. A brilliant meditation on life in a post-truth era, this piercing novel captures the sentiment on all our minds, of how impossible it can feel to remember, or to imagine, a time outside of this one. 'As Satya uncovers the "truth of fiction," Kumar provides a shimmering assault on the Zeitgeist.' - New Yorker

Reviews

In this age of lies, can we rely on fiction to cover the facts Amitava Kumars entertaining and incisive A Time Outside This Time provides a convincing answer . . . necessary and beautiful. -- Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild
A brilliant, expansive account of one mans attempt to follow his moral compass through a maze of disinformation and discord. Kumar has an uncanny ability to find and illuminate the radiance that remains in our half-ruined world. -- Jenny Offill, author of Weather and Dept of Speculation
Beautiful, deft and full of memorable details . . . A Time Outside This Time is a courageous book, incredibly relevant for the present moment and crucial for imagining a better future. -- Aleksandar Hemon, author of Nowhere Man and The Lazarus Project
Like a modern Orwell or Thoreau, Amitava Kumar explores the dangers of disinformation and the ways politics shape our everyday lives. Sensuous and searching, this is an absorbing portrait of an inspired artist in the midst of our maddening cultural moment. -- Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies
Amitava Kumar has the precious ability to write across borders and cultures. This brilliant, learned, and anguished novel succeeds in inventing a new vantage point on our agitated and bewildering world. -- Joseph ONeill, author of Netherland
Novels this good come along once in a lifetime. Kumar has fashioned a brilliant prophetic meditation on the age of untruth. -- Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Author Bio

Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist. He was born in Ara, India, and grew up in the nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty, and delicious mangoes. Kumar is the author of the novel Immigrant, Montana, as well as several other books of nonfiction and fiction. In 2016, Kumar was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (General Nonfiction) as well as a Ford Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists. He lives in Poughkeepsie, in upstate New York, where he is Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College.