Sj Sindu – författare

“What a gorgeous, heartbreaking novel.”—Roxane Gay​​A necessary and exciting addition to both the Sri Lankan-American and LGBTQ canons, SJ Sindu's debut novel offers a moving and sharply rendered​ exploration of friendship, family, love, and loss.  Lucky and her husband, Krishna, are gay. They present an illusion of marital bliss to their conservative Sri Lankan–American families, while each dates on the side. It’s not ideal, but for Lucky, it seems to be working. She goes out dancing, she drinks a bit, she makes ends meet by doing digital art on commission. But when Lucky’s grandmother has a nasty fall, Lucky returns to her childhood home and unexpectedly reconnects with her former best friend and first lover, Nisha, who is preparing for her own arranged wedding with a man she’s never met.As the connection between the two women is rekindled, Lucky tries to save Nisha from entering a marriage based on a lie. But does Nisha really want to be saved? And after a decade’s worth of lying, can Lucky break free of her own circumstances and build a new life? Is she willing to walk away from all that she values about her parents and community to live in a new truth? As Lucky—an outsider no matter what choices she makes—is pushed to the breaking point, Marriage of a Thousand Lies offers a vivid exploration of a life lived at a complex intersection of race, sexuality, and nationality. The result is a profoundly American debut novel shot through with humor and loss, a story of love, family, and the truths that define us all.

From the award-winning author of Marriage of a Thousand Lies comes a brilliantly written, globe-spanning novel about identity, faith, family, and sexuality.In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy is born with blue skin. His father sets up an ashram, and the family makes a living off of the pilgrims who seek the child’s blessings and miracles, believing young Kalki to be the tenth human incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. In Kalki’s tenth year, he is confronted with three trials that will test his power and prove his divine status and, his father tells him, spread his fame worldwide. While he seems to pass them, Kalki begins to question his divinity. Over the next decade, his family unravels, and every relationship he relied on—father, mother, aunt, uncle, cousin—starts falling apart. Traveling from India to the underground rock scene of New York City, Blue-Skinned Gods explores ethnic, gender, and sexual identities, and spans continents and faiths, in an expansive and heartfelt look at the need for belief in our globally interconnected world.

In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy named Kalki is born with blue skin.He believes that he is the Hindu god Vishnu and that he can perform miracles.The truth is much darker.

As Kalki struggles to extract himself from under the thumb of his controlling father, he must also reconcile with the idea that everything he’s ever been told might not be true. When his father drags him on a tour to America, Kalki seizes his chance to explore what life as an ordinary man might be like.

Pulled between India and America, and his father’s web of control, Kalki must find his true place in the world.

‘Rich, beautifully told and moving’ Guardian‘It is impossible not to be hypnotized... Sindu masterfully renders how our environments bake into our skin’ The New York Times‘The richness of this story will take hold of you and never let go’ Roxane Gay‘Marvelous’ Devin Murphy‘A memorable and vivid coming-of-age story’ Elise Hooper‘Stunning’ Kristen Arnett‘An instant classic’ Nick White‘Exquisite’ Patrick Cottrell‘Profound’ Tessa Fontaine‘One of the most original and beautiful novels I’ve read in a long time’ Brandon Hobson

Shortlisted for the 2022 Lammy Award in Bisexual FictionAn Autostraddle Best Queer Book of the YearAn ABA Indie Next Pick for November 2021An AudioFile Earphones Award Winner

In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy named Kalki is born with blue skin.He believes that he is the Hindu god Vishnu and that he can perform miracles.The truth is much darker.

As Kalki struggles to extract himself from under the thumb of his controlling father, he must also reconcile with the idea that everything he’s ever been told might not be true. When his father drags him on a tour to America, Kalki seizes his chance to explore what life as an ordinary man might be like.

Pulled between India and America, and his father’s web of control, Kalki must find his true place in the world.

‘Rich, beautifully told and moving’ Guardian‘It is impossible not to be hypnotized... Sindu masterfully renders how our environments bake into our skin’ The New York Times‘The richness of this story will take hold of you and never let go’ Roxane Gay‘Marvelous’ Devin Murphy‘A memorable and vivid coming-of-age story’ Elise Hooper‘Stunning’ Kristen Arnett‘An instant classic’ Nick White‘Exquisite’ Patrick Cottrell‘Profound’ Tessa Fontaine‘One of the most original and beautiful novels I’ve read in a long time’ Brandon Hobson

Shortlisted for the 2022 Lammy Award in Bisexual FictionAn Autostraddle Best Queer Book of the YearAn ABA Indie Next Pick for November 2021An AudioFile Earphones Award Winner

“Chaotic, sexy, and binge-worthy as hell, Be Gay, Do Crime is an EVENT.”—Ruth Madievsky, author of All Night PharmacyA follow-up to their runaway success Peach Pit: Sixteen Stories of Unsavory Women, editors Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley return with Be Gay, Do Crime, a celebration of queer chaos from an all-queer author lineup featuring Myriam Gurba, Emily Austin, Alissa Nutting, and Francesca EkwuyasiA trans woman makes increasingly frequent hoax calls to a business where she's had a negative experience, watching the consequences with perverse joy. A group of aging queers turns to bank robbery to stop the sale of their bungalow complex to a development company. As the president prepares to give a speech, two women lurk among the journalists, ready to shoot him. And an aspiring author takes to stealing items from strangers’ homes in a kind of cosmic redistribution each time one of her relationships fail.In sixteen brilliant, wild-eyed stories, Be Gay, Do Crime delivers a celebration and reckoning of why queer people turn to crime–unintentionally, as a means of survival, as protest, as rescue, or to right injustices big and small.