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Sakina’s Kiss is a 2023 novel by the Kannada writer Vivek Shanbhag, translated into English by Srinath Perur. Set mostly in a Bengaluru flat over four days, it follows Venkat as the authority he assumed over his wife and daughter slips away. Scroll.in critic Sayari Debnath, in a review published on 8 October 2023, reads his estrangement as the persistence of patriarchal expectations: a man who thinks of himself as modern but still expects deference and control. This is a novel, not a documentary, and the account below separates what the publisher and the review say from what the book leaves open.
What the novel is about
The publisher’s synopsis opens with Venkat answering urgent knocks at the door of his flat. Two young men say they have business with his daughter, Rekha. Over the following days a series of bewildering events unsettles his quiet, middle-class life. Running alongside this present-day sequence is a parallel story of an earlier betrayal and disappearance. The publisher describes Venkat losing his grip on the narrative as he loses his grip on his wife and daughter.
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The publisher frames the book in these terms: “Sakina’s Kiss is a delicate, precise meditation on the persistence of old biases—and a rattled masculinity—in India’s changing social and political landscape.” That is publisher copy, not a statement by Shanbhag or Perur.
Two timelines: the Bengaluru flat and the village past
Debnath’s review describes the novel as moving between Venkat’s household in Bengaluru and memories of a village family history. The plot details below are as the review reports them, not independently verified events.
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The present: a household under strain
- Venkat’s attempts to hold the narrative together fail in step with his hold on his family.
- Rekha’s disappearance, a possible break-in, and the letters of Ramanna keep the mood uncertain.
- The family’s silences do as much work as its arguments.
The past: a village family and its wounds
- Venkat remembers a mild-mannered but strict father and a short-tempered uncle, Ramanna.
- His mother’s sadness follows her husband’s betrayal.
- A dispute over property belonging to his maternal uncle surfaces the family’s old grievances over land and standing.
How Debnath reads Venkat’s masculinity
Debnath describes Venkat as a man who initially thinks of himself as liberal yet still expects some measure of service from his wife and tries to control his daughter’s choices. Her argument is that an ostensibly modern masculinity can keep entitlement and control in quieter forms rather than abandoning them.
Control dressed as concern
The review points to several concrete moments: Venkat resists Rekha’s concerts and overnight visits, prefers that she study science, is suspicious of her relationship with an older mentor, and dismisses her political awareness. Each is presented as a way of managing a daughter who is claiming her own choices.
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Silence, and the status of “man” of the family
Debnath also says Venkat does not challenge sexist remarks on television when his wife and daughter are made uncomfortable. He seems more invested in keeping the status of “man” of the family than in standing beside them as husband and father. She says she sympathises with him while treating his isolation as self-created, and she puts it bluntly: “This loneliness is of his own making.” That judgment belongs to the reviewer and should not be read as a claim about Shanbhag’s intent or as evidence about men generally.
Why Venkat is becoming estranged
The review’s explanation is structural rather than psychological. Venkat’s authority seems less secure as his wife and daughter claim autonomy, yet he continues to expect deference and control. The estrangement, in this reading, is not a sudden breakdown but the gap between what he still demands and what the women around him are willing to give.
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This is a reading of one fictional household. The sources do not establish that Venkat represents all Indian men, or that his family dynamic is statistically typical of Indian families, and the novel should not be used as a stand-in for such claims.
Is Sakina’s Kiss a romance, and what does the title mean?
The title is not explained by the publisher’s synopsis or by Debnath’s review. Her review notes that Sakina’s name does not appear in the book description and cautions that the novel is not a romance. Readers looking for a love story should expect something quite different. Any explanation of who Sakina is or what the kiss signifies would be the reader’s own inference, not something the book’s paratext supports.
Silences and an open ending
Debnath says the ending leaves questions open and preserves silence rather than explaining every mystery. The disappearances and secrets stay unresolved, and that is central to the book’s effect: the reader, like Venkat, is left without a full account. The publisher describes the novel as interrogating the space between truth and perception, a phrase that comes from its catalogue copy.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Edition and availability
The Penguin Random House India catalogue page lists the following bibliographic details. Availability and price can change, so confirm them on the publisher’s page or at your retailer before buying.
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| Field | Detail (as listed by the publisher) |
|---|---|
| Title | Sakina’s Kiss |
| Author | Vivek Shanbhag |
| Translator | Srinath Perur, from Kannada |
| Publisher and imprint | Penguin Random House India; Vintage Books |
| Publication | October 2023 |
| ISBN | 9780670098835 |
| Length | 194 pages |
| Formats on the listing | Paperback and hardback, with an Amazon India purchase option |
Who wrote and translated it
The publisher identifies Shanbhag as a Kannada author, editor and playwright, and Perur as a writer and Kannada-to-English translator. The listing also describes Sakina’s Kiss as Shanbhag’s second complete work to appear in English. These are the publisher’s own biographical claims, not independently checked facts.
Should you read it?
Read it if you want domestic fiction that examines how a man can call himself modern while still relying on old claims to authority. The book asks for patience: its timelines shift, its mysteries stay open, and its central figure is hard to like. Readers who want resolution, or who expect the title to unlock a story about Sakina, will likely be disappointed. Readers who are comfortable with ambiguity will find the novel’s unease its main point.
Debnath’s reading gives the novel a clear frame, and the book’s silences give readers room to test it.
A direct link to the book’s catalogue page is the most useful next step for anyone deciding whether to buy.
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