The Immortal King Rao is an odyssey of the grandest scale, spanning over a century and charting a Dalit immigrant's rise to world power. Vauhini Vara fuses intricate family lore with the history of tech solutionism and capitalist demagoguery, pointing forward to a dangerously likely future of corporate dominion; she writes with the meticulous clarity of a longform journalist, the explosive force of a Trident missile, and the ambition of her own brilliant protagonists.--Tony Tulathimutte, author of Private Citizens

Utterly, thrillingly brilliant. From the first unforgettable page to the last, The Immortal King Rao is a form-inventing, genre-exploding triumph. Vauhini Vara's bravura debut has reshaped my brain and expanded my heart.--R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries

In this richly imagined saga spanning past, present, and future, Vauhini Vara brings us a visionary who makes the world in his image, and the strong-willed daughter whose life could be his final legacy. Vara's brilliance is matched only by her heart, and this unforgettable debut will challenge what you think you know about genius, capitalism, consciousness, and what it means to be human.--Anna North, author of Outlawed

Vara comes out the gate with a masterwork: a book that is three great novels in one-the tale of a thriving and chaotic Dalit clan in the first decades of independent India; an immigrant success story in '80s America; and a dystopian nightmare of the post-Trump future.--Karan Mahajan, author of The Association of Small Bombs

An exacting writer of the digital age, journalist Vara makes her debut with a trippy novel that marries the family saga with a biotech satire. ... Vara has a gift for humanizing the invisible labor that happens behind our screens. Who, if anyone, can really separate themselves from the digital ties that bind us?--Jessica Jacolbe "Vulture"

A brilliant and beautifully written book about capitalism and the patriarchy, about Dalit India and digital America, about power and family and love.--Alex Preston "The Observer"

Alternating between Rao's childhood in a small Indian village, his early student days in the US, and the dystopian society in which Athena has to function, Vara's original debut delivers challenging and weighty themes with a sure hand.--Poornima Apte "Booklist (starred review)"

A fully imagined world: propulsive, prophetic, dizzying.--Jeet Thayil, author of Names of the Women

An astonishing debut. An amazing imagination. Vara's voice is thrilling, original, dynamic and ever-surprising as her characters move from world to world, from the real to the fantastic, examining the myriad contradictory shapes in which love can appear.--Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of The Last Queen

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2023-04-04

Length: 408 pages