Run and Hide

Arun grows up in a small railway town where getting into the Indian Institute of Technology looks like the only realistic way to leave. He is about to enrol there, determined to build a future for himself. Once on campus, he becomes close to two friends who will go to almost any length to get ahead.

Within a few years, the pair have become the standout success stories of their generation. They stage extravagant fantasies of wealth and status, travelling by private plane and luxury car between New York and Tuscany. Their many transgressions, however, will eventually have a cost, and the novel asks who will end up paying it. Arun is one possibility. Another is Alia, a writer and influencer who is piecing together the story of a global financial scandal.

The book follows this circle of friends through an era of upheaval and collapse, and its concerns are those of the present day. It is the first novel Pankaj Mishra has published in twenty years. Mishra is the author of Age of Anger.