When I Hit You - Tapa dura

Profoundly moving and very cleverly constructed. The intensity of the narrator and unflinching lens on abuse made it unputdownable. A power house of a book. * Ali Land, author of Good Me Bad Me * Read it as an extended prose poem, a feminist anthem, an experiment with life. But do read it. * The Daily O * The best thing I've read in 2017. Simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting, it's a work of considerable power * The Page is Printed * A punch to the gut * The Wire * Heartbreaking... It isn't an easy read, but it is an important one * The F-Word * Urgent... It's beating heart is a universally recognised quest for freedom and meaning in a world where women are still shockingly undervalued * Financial Times * A brilliant but brutal punch to the guts -- Monisha Rajesh Such raw, lyrical reading * RTE Arena * This book is so so good. One of the best of the year -- Nikesh Shukla Brilliant... Astonishing... By far the best read of the year * Women Writers * Searing... I read it in a single sitting * Fatima Bhutto * Fierce and unforgettable * Culturefly * Courageous and brave and disturbing and will stay with you for a long time * Stylist * Probably one of the most important and shocking and poetic books of 2017 * Readwomen *

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018 LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2018 SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2018 Guardian's Best Books of 2017 Daily Telegraph's Best Books of 2017 Observer Best Books of 2017 Financial Times Best Books of 2017 "Meena Kandasamy's vivid, sharp and precise writing makes a triumph of When I Hit You: Or, a Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife(Atlantic)"- Guardian Seduced by politics, poetry and an enduring dream of building a better world together, the unnamed narrator falls in love with a university professor. Moving with him to a rain-washed coastal town, she swiftly learns that what for her is a bond of love is for him a contract of ownership. As he sets about reducing her to his idealised version of an obedient wife, bullying her and devouring her ambition of being a writer in the process, she attempts to push back - a resistance he resolves to break with violence and rape.