The Pontas Agency has a long history of representing female Indian literary talent and this tradition continues with the arrival of young Indian novelist and publisher Dharini Bhaskar.
In her latest book, LIKE BEING ALIVE TWICE, published in 2024 by Viking/PRH India to much critical acclaim and currently longlisted for the 2025 Ruskin Bond Award for Fiction, Dharini has written a unique, contemporary, genre-busting novel which straddles the literary and speculative. World English rights (excluding Indian subcontinent), all translation rights and audiovisual rights are currently available.
Set in a dystopian South Asian country where a points system dictates citizens’ lives, this is a love story with a difference: a story of nested possibilities, a story of what was, and a story of what might have been. Hard-hitting, timely and unsettling, Dharini masterfully weaves tension with poetry (the protagonist reveres American poet Linda Gregg) to create a fascinating and audacious read for fans of stylish, grounded speculative fiction novels.
In an unnamed nation that’s about to rupture, Priyamvada (Poppy), a Hindu and Tariq, a Muslim are in love. In a few hours, Tariq intends to propose; Poppy intends to say yes. Both assume that they’ll fend off political blowback. For, surely, their privilege will protect them.
But will it? Will Poppy and Tariq sustain a love so wholesome, so cossetted, that it remains impervious to a dystopian state? Or will the two be rent apart by chance and circumstance? What will their lives look like as they plunge into a brave new future, together or apart?
Written in alternating chapters, Like Being Alive Twice trails fact and possibility—the tale as-it-was and the tale as-it-could-have-been-if-only—arranging and rearranging, tweaking and nudging; hoping to find a lasting peace in one or the other story; hoping, above all else, that such peace will prevail over murderous times.
The press has said:
"A masterful comingling of love and dystopia, Like Being Alive Twice is an emotionally charged and unforgettable narrative experience." Youth Ki Awaaz
"An unusual novel, straddling genres and styles with rare aplomb [...] Hard-hitting, timely, and unsettling, this is a book for our times: a reminder of what could happen." Open Magazine
"You could read one as a story of courage, another of cowardice; or think of both as meditations on the way love forces our hand. But it is perhaps read better as a requiem for all that is lost in a world where the experience of human life becomes quantifiable, measured against utility. [...] Bhaskar’s voice is sharp, the contours of her storytelling are tastefully restrained." Scroll.in
"This inter-religious love story set in a dystopian unnamed nation packs quite a punch. [...] It is an intense exploration of what it means to love in a fractured world." The Hindu
"Through the form of the dystopian love story, Bhaskar holds up a mirror to our present reality and then shows us what it can become. The prose is lyrical, fluid almost. Perhaps that is why it can snake its way from the story ‘as it was’ and ‘as it could have been’." Feminism in India
For more information about the above title, please contact Carla Briner (carla@pontas-agency.com)
Photos: @bahrisons_booksellers