Unprecedented Times: A Novel

Malavika Kannan establishes herself as an inimitable voice of Gen Z in this piercing coming-of-age debut novel.Which comes first: experience or narrative? Rishi thinks she knows the answer as she arrives on campus for her first year at Stanford.A burnt-out youth climate activist, she used to want to save the world, but now she just wants to have gay sex.Her plan is set-she’s going to leave behind the strict trappings of her Indian American childhood in Florida, study literature, experiment with love, and write all about it.Within a few months, she makes her first best friend, falls in love with her situationship, and promptly gets her heart broken.What is not a part of Rishi’s plan is the onset of the COVID pandemic.As the outside world becomes a terrifying place, she increasingly finds solace in the friendships she’s made.Instead of virtual college, however, Rishi and her classmates join a farm collective, where their political discussions and growing disillusionment collide with sexu