Shamsher Singh (Sammy to his friends) watches a man carry a corpse around Delhi, looking for a place to cremate the body with dignity. Sammy’s is a privileged life, yet the sickness has ripped open all the insecurities and anxieties of his past. In Beijing, Mei must come to terms both with her stepfather’s demands and her long-distance relationship with Farid, Shamsher Singh’s young “nephew”. Changez Khan finds kindness from an unexpected quarter in Bangkok, but his own ghosts carry an intolerable weight. In Jakarta, Nina, Mei’s mother, must overcome her husband’s paranoia and her own isolation. As death steps ever closer, lies are exposed and deceptions unraveled. But there is always hope.

Set across Asia at the peak of the brutal Delta wave, The Pretenders is a novel about finding love, freedom, and human connection in the bleakest of times. In Delhi’s sprawling homes, in the cramped quarters of the staff that keep them running, in the loneliness of Bangkok’s streets, The Pretenders takes one to the heart of what it means to be human when life itself is in the balance. Policemen and predators, the privileged and the under-privileged, masters and servants: everyone must look in the mirror when the time comes and know truth from artifice.

Ambitious, lyrical, and reflective, The Pretenders is the pandemic novel we’ve all been waiting for.>/P>

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