The Goodbye Book

While His New Book Explores Indian Identity, Aatish Taseer Now Looks Beyond India For Inspiration

- Mandira Nayar

Aatish Taseer cannot live in India anymore. Now married to lawyer Ryan Davis, Taseer is in New York, spending his days walking their dog, running six miles twice a week and trying to overcome the static invasions in his life to write. Like many other Indian writers, Taseer will now try and find material beyond India.

“I don’t think I can live here [in India],’’ he says from New York. “I don’t want to lose a feeling of emotional wellbeing. I think India is going to be a place where a certain kind of English-speaking person of my background will have a harder and harder time. But to be gay, to be Muslim, I am too sharp at an angle at it. It would usurp the energy of my life to fit in.’’