Ten Incarnations of Rebellion

A Novel

De: Vaishnavi Patel

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.

©2025 Vaishnavi Patel (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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

“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