Vijay Khurana is a writer and translator based between Berlin and London. His work has appeared in NOON, The Guardian, 3: AM Magazine, The Erotic Review and elsewhere. He is currently completing a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at Queen Mary, University of London, researching the disembodied voice and its effect on diaspora, long-distance relationships and loneliness. An excerpt from his translation of the German novel Red (Hunger) by Senthuran Varatharajah appears in the 2024 White Review translation anthology. The Passenger Seat, his first novel, was shortlisted for the 2022 Novel Prize.

Praise for The Passenger Seat

"Unsettling and powerful . . . If the inciting episode reads as an overdetermined proof of male one-upmanship, Khurana's execution of it is nevertheless gripping. Things go pear-shaped, then the pear goes rotten as the boys harbor resentments, thwart each other and secretively plot."
--New York Times

"A poignant examination of male friendship, homosocial desire, and the trappings and broader social implications of masculinity."
--Fitzcarraldo Editions/New Directions/Giramondo Novel Prize shortlist citation

"The Passenger Seat will both mesmerize and refuse comforting resolution."
--Literary Review of Canada

"Khurana employs classic tropes of the buddy road trip and crime novel/true crime genres while giving them a critical 21st-century twist--think In Cold Blood meets Grand Theft Auto with the psychological complexity and moral anguish of Dostoevsky and inputs from third-wave feminists."
--Tom Sandborn, The Tyee

"A tense and gripping power struggle of toxic masculinity, as the teenagers push each other further and further down a violent road of no return . . . this outstanding debut takes us inside the darkest and most vulnerable parts of their minds."
--Steph Harmon, The Guardian

"An unusual and deftly written literary thriller . . . Khurana's prose enthralls, marked by a sharp social and sensory realism and a mature emotional intelligence. His ability to capture how physiological reactions often precede cognitive understanding is impressive."
--Books+Publishing

"In Khurana's spare, rhythmic prose . . . the jagged edges of a species of male friendship are powerfully rendered."
--The BC Review

"A perfectly paced and intensely compelling read. The Passenger Seat is an unforgiving, disturbing tale that resists any easy explanation, as Khurana considers the darkness of violence with a steely calm that refuses to let us look away."
--The Saturday Paper

"The structure of the book and its lyrical prose combine to make telling points about toxic male bonding and its relationship to sexist violence, all without any counterproductive lecturing or explicit judgements. The magisterial way that Khurana uses the classic elements of noir crime writing to challenge and subvert those very elements is impressive."
--Rabble

"A challenging novel that pushes against the elastic comfort of the expected, The Passenger Seat tests what makes a boy turn into a man and arrives in a territory both unexpected and certain."
--Foreword Reviews

"Two high school friends fall into a rite of poisonous passage toward toxic masculinity . . . A novel for those who like their grimness unadulterated by any glimmer of redemption."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Vijay Khurana's profound and propulsive The Passenger Seat is a thrilling, terrifying, devastating ride. This perfectly pitched tale of masculinity gone wrong exposes the ways that intimacy can so quickly veer into violence--yet it evades easy moral pronouncements at every turn. Khurana is a brilliant stylist who drives straight toward the heart. I would follow him down any road."
--Elvia Wilk, author of Death by Landscape and Oval

"Vijay Khurana writes incredibly succinct and vigorous prose. His stories, always full of insight and depth, shine a light on the most nuanced and ambivalent corners of our lives."
--Yan Ge, author of Strange Beasts of China

"This book is simply great--an elegant novel written with disturbing emotional intensity and a sly, judicious sense of contemporary detail."
--Lauren Oyler, author of Fake Accounts