6/4/2023 0 Comments The devourers by indra das![]() ![]() ![]() Alok is a closeted queer person in a place where colonial laws have made homosexuality a crime. This sentence can be seen as a microcosm of the book. When Alok says he doesn’t think there are any wolves in India, the stranger says, “Just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not there.” The story contains layers within layers: A predator (Alok) protects another predator (a kitten) from other predators (the dogs), while speaking to the most dangerous predator of all (the half werewolf). The novel opens with a variation on that scene: Alok Mukherjee (a professor of history) protects a kitten from a pack of dogs while sharing a cigarette beneath the full moon with a stranger who claims to be half werewolf. ![]() There I learned that this gorgeous meta-tale of history, mythology, and bloodshed was inspired by a time when he protected a stray kitten from street dogs in Kolkata. He is a Shirley Jackson Award-winner for his short fiction, which appears in Clarkesworld Magazine, Asimov’s, Slate Magazine, and Strange Horizons, as well as in numerous anthologies. The Devourers was shortlisted for numerous awards and won the Lambda Literary Award in 2017 for best LGBTQ SF/F/Horror. His first novel, The Devourers, was written during his MFA graduate studies at the University of British Columbia. Indra (Indrapramit) Das is a writer from Kolkata, India. Content warning: sexual assault, cannibalism, graphic depictions of violence ![]()
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