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Jun 3, 2025
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Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi comes an epic and daring novel that imagines an alternate version of 1960s India that was never liberated from the British, and a young woman’s struggle to change the tides of history.
“This is the kind of fiction we need more of.”—R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel
Kalki Divekar grows up a daughter of Kingston—a city the British built on the ashes of Bombay. The older generation, including her father, have been lost to the brutal hunt for rebels. Young men are drafted to fight wars they will never return from. And the people of her city are more interested in fighting one another than facing their true oppressors.
When tragedy strikes close to home, Kalki begins to play a dangerous game with small acts of resistance, tempered by cautious, level-headed Yashu and fortified by Fauzia, whose dreams of the future awaken Kalki’s heart. Together, they found Kingston’s new independence movement, obtaining jobs working for the British while secretly planning to destroy the empire from the inside out. But one wrong move means certain death, and when facing threats from all quarters, Kalki must decide whether it’s more important to be a hero or to survive.
Set over the course of a decade and told as ten moments from Kalki’s life that mirror the Dashavatara, the ten avatars of Vishnu, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion is a sweeping, deeply felt speculative novel of empowerment, friendship, self-determination, and the true meaning of freedom.
“This is the kind of fiction we need more of.”—R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel
Kalki Divekar grows up a daughter of Kingston—a city the British built on the ashes of Bombay. The older generation, including her father, have been lost to the brutal hunt for rebels. Young men are drafted to fight wars they will never return from. And the people of her city are more interested in fighting one another than facing their true oppressors.
When tragedy strikes close to home, Kalki begins to play a dangerous game with small acts of resistance, tempered by cautious, level-headed Yashu and fortified by Fauzia, whose dreams of the future awaken Kalki’s heart. Together, they found Kingston’s new independence movement, obtaining jobs working for the British while secretly planning to destroy the empire from the inside out. But one wrong move means certain death, and when facing threats from all quarters, Kalki must decide whether it’s more important to be a hero or to survive.
Set over the course of a decade and told as ten moments from Kalki’s life that mirror the Dashavatara, the ten avatars of Vishnu, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion is a sweeping, deeply felt speculative novel of empowerment, friendship, self-determination, and the true meaning of freedom.
Product Details
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
| Publish Date | June 03, 2025 |
| Pages | 320 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9780593874769 |
| Dimensions | 9.6 X 6.5 X 1.0 inches | 1.1 pounds |
About the Author
Vaishnavi Patel is the New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi and Goddess of the River. She is a lawyer specializing in civil rights litigation, including issues of gender and racial justice. Ten Incarnations of Rebellion is her third novel.
Reviews
“Richly steeped in historical detail and brimming with complex questions of morality, justice, and power, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion is a tribute to the freedom fighters and a celebration of resistance. Vaishnavi Patel has written a devastating and unforgettable tour de force.”—Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning
“A welcome and refreshing challenge to our preconceived notion of how rebellions are mounted—and won.”—Alka Joshi, author of The Henna Artist, The Perfumist of Paris, and Six Days in Bombay
“Patel gives readers a powerful, compelling alt history that not only explores Great Britain's colonialist violence and draws on Indian myth and religious tales but also presents challenging questions about what sacrifices it takes to build a truly effective revolutionary movement . . . [The] novel is propelled by its characters, the female leaders of a rebellion that will take out an entire oppressive regime, and their debates, support for one another, and determination to see an independent India.”—Booklist
“A triumphant feat of imagination, this novel is both historical and eerily timely, urging us that now more than ever, seemingly small collections of mounting rebellion are what will see us—and by extension our power, our humanity, our voices—through.”—Parini Shroff, author of The Bandit Queens
“Expertly weaving what ifs into real history, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion is a testament to the quiet acts of defiance that build into a revolution.”—O.O. Sangoyomi, author of Masquerade
“An immaculate and heart-wrenching tale . . . Patel’s books are the kind I want to read for the rest of my life.”—Emily Varga, internationally bestselling author of For She Is Wrath
“A fascinating, innovative, and suspenseful alternate history of India’s freedom struggle . . . Readers will fall in love—as I did—with the heroine, Kalki, who is at once intelligent, courageous, and vulnerable.” —Chitra Banerjree Divakaruni, author of The Palace of Illusions and Independence
“A meticulous interrogation of the mythmaking, contradictions, and sacrifices of revolution . . . Patel never writes the easy story; she writes the infuriating, frustrating, necessary story.”—R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel
“A welcome and refreshing challenge to our preconceived notion of how rebellions are mounted—and won.”—Alka Joshi, author of The Henna Artist, The Perfumist of Paris, and Six Days in Bombay
“Patel gives readers a powerful, compelling alt history that not only explores Great Britain's colonialist violence and draws on Indian myth and religious tales but also presents challenging questions about what sacrifices it takes to build a truly effective revolutionary movement . . . [The] novel is propelled by its characters, the female leaders of a rebellion that will take out an entire oppressive regime, and their debates, support for one another, and determination to see an independent India.”—Booklist
“A triumphant feat of imagination, this novel is both historical and eerily timely, urging us that now more than ever, seemingly small collections of mounting rebellion are what will see us—and by extension our power, our humanity, our voices—through.”—Parini Shroff, author of The Bandit Queens
“Expertly weaving what ifs into real history, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion is a testament to the quiet acts of defiance that build into a revolution.”—O.O. Sangoyomi, author of Masquerade
“An immaculate and heart-wrenching tale . . . Patel’s books are the kind I want to read for the rest of my life.”—Emily Varga, internationally bestselling author of For She Is Wrath
“A fascinating, innovative, and suspenseful alternate history of India’s freedom struggle . . . Readers will fall in love—as I did—with the heroine, Kalki, who is at once intelligent, courageous, and vulnerable.” —Chitra Banerjree Divakaruni, author of The Palace of Illusions and Independence
“A meticulous interrogation of the mythmaking, contradictions, and sacrifices of revolution . . . Patel never writes the easy story; she writes the infuriating, frustrating, necessary story.”—R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel
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