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Santanu Bhattacharya’s Deviants follows three queer men in one Indian family—Vivaan, his uncle Mambro, and his grand-uncle Sukumar—as they seek love, intimacy, and belonging under very different social conditions. The novel is both heartbreaking and affirming: changing circumstances shape what each man can risk or hope for, but they do not erase shame, isolation, or the need for dignity.
What is Deviants about?
Deviants is a novel by Santanu Bhattacharya, published in India by Tranquebar/Westland. It traces queer life through three generations of a family, connecting private desires to the different historical and social worlds in which the men live. Scroll’s review describes a story concerned with love and sexuality, but also with family, secrecy, shame, dignity, and the longing to belong.
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The three lives are not simply stages in a story of steady progress. Their circumstances differ, but the novel’s concerns persist across generations: the desire for closeness, the cost of being seen, and the difficulty of finding a place in family and community. Scroll’s March 16, 2025 review offers one account of the characters and their emotional conflicts.
Who are the three central men?
| Character | Place in the family | What shapes his story |
|---|---|---|
| Vivaan | Younger generation | In the present day, he negotiates love and desire while confronting his partner’s preference for ethical non-monogamy. |
| Mambro | Vivaan’s uncle | In an earlier period, the discovery of his private writing leaves him facing exposure, bullying, and the pressure of secrecy. |
| Sukumar | Vivaan’s grand-uncle | Coming of age in the late 1970s, he longs for love and domestic intimacy amid much tighter constraints; his bond with a lover and that lover’s son is complicated. |
These details reflect the reviewer’s descriptions of selected plotlines, not an exhaustive account of each character. Read together, they show how the forms of intimacy available to the men—and the risks attached to them—depend on their particular relationships and circumstances.
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How does the novel portray queer life across generations?
Different contexts, not a simple ladder of progress
The men live in different periods and face different degrees of visibility and risk. Vivaan’s present-day relationship allows him to confront a specific question about the shape of love; Mambro’s private writing becomes a source of vulnerability when discovered; Sukumar’s longing for a shared domestic life takes shape under far tighter constraints. These contrasts matter, but they do not establish that one generation is simply free while another is not.
Family, secrecy, and belonging
Blood ties link the men, yet kinship does not automatically resolve isolation or provide a safe place for desire. The stories bring private life into contact with family expectations and social judgment. The struggle is not only to love, but to retain dignity and to imagine a life in which intimacy and belonging can coexist.
Rank #2
Pain alongside affirmation
The book’s emotional force comes from holding heartbreak and hope together. Shame, fear, and loneliness remain part of the characters’ worlds; so do tenderness and the possibility of meaningful connection. The result, as the review frames it, is neither a tragedy without possibility nor a reassuring story in which social change solves everything.
Why does the novel use three different narrative voices?
Bhattacharya has described the characters as inhabiting distinct social and cultural contexts, and the novel gives each a different narrative voice: Vivaan speaks in the first person, Mambro in the second person, and Sukumar in the third. The formal shifts make the generational structure more than a change of setting; each man’s story reaches the reader through a different point of view. In a February 9, 2025 Scroll interview, Bhattacharya put his approach this way: “A novel is not a place where you push an agenda; it’s a place where you make imaginary lives come true”.
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Who might appreciate Deviants?
The novel may suit readers looking for literary fiction about queer lives in India, family relationships, and the ways historical context shapes intimate choices. Its focus is on three particular lives rather than a comprehensive account of queer experience; the characters’ pain and complexity sit alongside the book’s affirming attention to love and belonging.
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Rank #4
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