Fieldwork as a Sex Object (FROM THE WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED ICON) - Meena Kandasamy

I mute the audio. I replay the video four times. It is not me. It is my fucking face. Amrita Chaturvedi goes by Amy. Amy identifies as a communist on Twitter (her profile omits a stint on Big Brother and a billionaire daddy running the show at the High Court of Delhi). Then reality hits: a deepfake porno of her forwarded around by WhatsApp aunties goes viral. On her birthday, Amy wakes to a stoning in the digital town square that could cancel the likes of Kim Kardashian. Her executioners? A cartel of unhinged virgins styling themselves after V for Vendetta - except these keyboard warriors are on a ruthless crusade to wipe out desi jezebels and Make India Hindu Again. A muscular, monumental work of internet literature in which the online turns offline turns bloody, Fieldwork as a Sex Object is not a novel you read but a novel that reads you: what are you prepared to risk for what you claim to believe?