When I Hit You

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"- 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.



Meena Kandasamy (born 1984) is a poet, fiction writer, translator and activist who was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. She has published two collections of poetry,

Touch (2006) and

Ms. Militancy (2010), and the critically acclaimed novel,

Gypsy Goddess. She currently lives in East London.



Probably one of the most important and shocking and poetic books of 2017



Courageous and brave and disturbing and will stay with you for a long time



Fierce and unforgettable



Searing... I read it in a single sitting



Brilliant... Astonishing... By far the best read of the year



This book is so so good. One of the best of the year



Such raw, lyrical reading



A brilliant but brutal punch to the guts



Urgent... It's beating heart is a universally recognised quest for freedom and meaning in a world where women are still shockingly undervalued



Heartbreaking... It isn't an easy read, but it is an important one



A punch to the gut



The best thing I've read in 2017. Simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting, it's a work of considerable power



Read it as an extended prose poem, a feminist anthem, an experiment with life. But do read it.



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.