SEAHORSE

FINALIST FOR THE HINDU FICTION PRIZE

ABOUT

"We are shaped by absence...the spaces in the trellis on which we trail from season to season."

Nem is a student of English Literature at Delhi University. He drifts between classes, weed-hazy parties, and the amorous complexities of campus life, until a chance encounter with an art historian steers him into a world of pleasure and artistic discovery. One day, without warning, his mentor disappears. 


Years later, a cryptic note plunges him into a search for this mysterious figure from his past—a search which turns into a reckoning with himself. Retelling the myth of Poseidon and his youthful male devotee Pelops, Seahorse transforms a simple coming-of-age story into an epic drama of love, loss and healing.

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PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

"Janice Pariat’s first novel has the piercing insight and linguistic felicity of her short fiction. It is an ardent and highly accomplished meditation on art, love and sexuality."


The Sunday Guardian

"In Seahorse, Janice Pariat has offered us a novel that aspires to the seahorses’ magical dance—a novel that is not only about actions but about ideas; that aspires to place the quest for desire and beauty at the centre of the human experience."


Tishani Doshi

Author of Small Days and Nights

"This elegant meditation on memory and desire is set in a world where love and absence go hand in hand. Read it for the luminous prose and listen for the click as character and destiny locks into place."


Jeet Thayil

Author of Narcopolis

"…an intense and well-crafted look at homophobia and human relationships."


Kirkus Reviews


Copyright © 2025 Janice Pariat - All Rights Reserved.

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