"Padma Viswanathan has long been a writer whose work I have admired but she even tops herself with this masterpiece, The Charterhouse of Padma . This book haunted and almost traumatized me with its unrelenting truths about love and life, told with the kind of experimental artistry that wowed me at every vignette. A meditation on color, a domestic/academic mystery, a parable of doubles, an investigation of what companionship means in our era--and more! This novel definitely has a forever position on my favorites shelf! I am in awe and now just want to reread it over and over!" -- Porochista Khakpour , author of Tehrangeles "I tore right through The Charterhouse of Padma , which is to say that it is, in its very unusual way, a page-turner, and not only that but a combination I don't think I've ever seen before of the speculative, the political, the fragmentary, the essayistic, and the autofictional. I loved it." -- Kevin Brockmeier , author of The Ghost Variations "Every time I thought I knew where Padma Viswanathan's The Charterhouse of Padma might be going, she surprised me in the best way. This smart, scintillating journey of a text shows what thinking as writing might look like." -- John Keene , author of Counternarratives "Padma Viswanathan has brought us a whole new kind of imaginary play. The Charterhouse of Padma Padma is a novel that dances fast and loose with narrative distance, told by narrators whose interiority is writ large.

This is a book that is bitter and sweet, awash with asides that will leave you wondering why you never thought to describe things in exactly this way before. Professional feminists anyone? Viswanathan offers us a chance to immerse ourselves in a unique domestic drama: one that manages to be intimate, bewildering, funny as all get out, smart as heck, and convincingly real." -- Ru Freeman , author of Sleeping Alone.