The Girl Who Kept Falling in Love

Kaya is addicted to love. The very fact of being loved seems to be proof of her worth, her purpose But at age forty, her past stretches out behind her in a long string of loves lost, and she is weary of being heartbroken. Desperately seeking purpose elsewhere, Kaya finds it in the world of activism, where she becomes greatly invested in resisting the growing fascist and Islamophobic forces of present-day India. However, she is rudely reminded that much of the middle-class social activism she is part of is fuelled by a collective saviour complex. A high-caste Hindu with a US passport, Kaya is no exception. Still, the marginal danger and the instability are addictive, and the sense of righteousness is quite validating.

When Kaya meets and falls deeply in love with a fellow activist from the very religious community the country is actively trying to erase, her twin purposes are miraculously aligned in an intoxicating combination that she is fearful of losing. In the midst of spirited protests and rising violence, she bears witness to vast human suffering while experiencing profound joy. Fate forces her to make a choice. Kaya knows if she chooses love this time, she will betray everything she has claimed to believe in. If she is willing to do that, can Kaya truly be loved by the person she most desires?

Told through the lens of urban myths, accounts of past lovers, bared confessions and half-truths that make up Kaya's world, The Girl Who Kept Falling in Love dives deep into the futilities of being attached to global aspiration and fighting institutionalized hate while chasing a universal need for love and acceptance. This is a truly intimate, propulsive and provocative work of literary fiction that captures the fraught times we live in.