Advance Praise
"...a testament to Mahajan's genius. This novel is beautiful and unforgettable. A masterly novel, seemingly influenced by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, by a talented and self-assured writer."
"The Complex is an extraordinary gift to its lucky readers: an enormously full and brilliantly structured novel whose characters come to feel as familiar—and as bottomlessly mysterious—as one's own family. I was spellbound by the ramifying dramas of the Chopras, whose strong roots intertwine below their Delhi complex during decades of sweeping global and national change. I am awestruck by what Karan Mahajan has accomplished in The Complex and I never wanted this book to end."
"In the tradition of Tolstoy, Karan Mahajan has written a family saga and a historical epic that describes humanity with absolute fidelity—no kinder or crueler, wiser or duller, grander or punier than it really is. In The Complex, not only is the personal political, but the political is a duck blind for the personal, demonstrating how family secrets and failed businesses create demagogues, martyrs, and murderers. This is a far-sighted and serious novel, and a monument to radicalized times."
"A delicious page turner about familial jealousy and revenge that, in the Dostoevskian tradition, doubles as a masterful investigation of the slipperiness of power in a changing and modernizing world. The Complex is Mahajan's most exciting, virtuosic novel yet."
"Epic in scope, wonderous in its summoning of distinct characters, vital in its weaving of family and politics. This is a miraculous novel."
"Riveting and unputdownable—Shakespearean storytelling. Karan Mahajan's best work yet."
"This novel's rare achievement lies in its masterful portrayal of the intimate relationship between personal lives and political realities. Through the story of a family, it captures the larger movements shaping the nation, revealing how political and social transformations seep into everyday life and quietly shape human choices... Through a powerful mode of storytelling, Mahajan constructs the intricate connections between a society's moral upheavals and its political and familial aspirations."
"The Complex leaps off the page, comes racing at you, streamlined by Mahajan's style and spurred by his sharp nip. I was amazed at how fast the pages turned. A propertied Punjabi clan, with all of its deadly sins laid bare, generates forces that will frighten and excite the country. Mahajan orchestrates the turbulence with a brilliant eye and a ruthless hand."
"Brutal, knifesharp, tender—Karan Mahajan packs an entire world of desire, incendiary politics, greed, and transgression into this engrossing tale of a family bartering old myths for new."
"To watch the wily Chopras jostle for dominion—not just over the crumbling walls of their shared home, but over the very historical and moral record of their age—is pure pleasure. Mahajan is, as always, a political anatomist blessed with a comedian's eye for the absurd, and The Complex is a singular portrait of a family as riven and fractious—and eternally surprising—as the country that produced it."
"This family saga feels like wonderfully told backstories of people you have certainly met at a Delhi wedding, even as it is filled with memorable lines about marriage and the nature of tortured people. This is a tale about family that only an Indian can tell."
