A brilliant, sweeping tour de force moving between the US and modern India, following the illicit liaisons, real estate dramas, political ambitions, and mortal betrayals of one prominent Delhi family.

A New York Times Editors' Choice • A New Yorker Best Book of the Year So Far • A Most Anticipated Book of 2026: The Washington Post, Vulture, Lit Hub, The Millions, Chicago Review of Books

In a sprawling complex in Delhi, the sons and daughters of SP Chopra, one of India's political architects, live together vying for influence in a family shaped by the great man's legacy.

Sachin Chopra leaves for America, with his bride Gita following not long after, as the newlyweds are eager to forge their own lives beyond the pressures of the family compound. Yet Delhi remains an inescapable force, one that keeps pulling them back, even as Gita is menaced by Sachin's predatory uncle, Laxman. Meanwhile, Vibha, Laxman's sister, tries to keep the peace and the reputation of the family intact even as she wrestles with her own exile.

As India erupts in violence and long-buried secrets come to light, the embattled Chopras must reckon with the cost of power, the weight of tradition and the shifting nature of love and allegiance. Equal parts brilliant family saga and piercing political drama, The Complex is a virtuosic novel of revenge and redemption, ambition and undoing, loyalty and love, by a lauded voice in contemporary fiction.

[A] magisterial performance. . . Mahajan is a confident, ambitious and increasingly important writer ― New York Times Book Review

An anguished, intelligent study of ambition decoupled from principles, and of the complacency and fear that allows it to thrive ― Wall Street Journal

Details

ISBN13: 9781804711415
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 432
Edition: Export/Airside
Publication Date: 08 Sep 2026
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 23.4(H)x15.6(L)
Weight (gm):

Author Biography

Karan Mahajan is the author of The Association of Small Bombs, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award and was named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review. His debut novel Family Planning was a finalist for the International Dylan Thomas Prize. He has been selected as one of Granta'sBest Young American Novelists, and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Vanity Fair and other venues. He is an associate professor in Literary Arts at Brown University.

Reviews

[A] magisterial performance. . . Mahajan is a confident, ambitious and increasingly important writer * New York Times Book Review *
An anguished, intelligent study of ambition decoupled from principles, and of the complacency and fear that allows it to thrive * Wall Street Journal *
This novel is beautiful and unforgettable. A masterly novel, seemingly influenced by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, by a talented and self-assured writer * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *
Mahajan has created something savour-worthy: a family epic that takes place in both India and America...[he] writes with grace and precision, is able to depict both horrors and joys, violence and tenderness in equal measure * Literary Hub *
The Complex is an extraordinary gift to its lucky readers: an enormously full and brilliantly structured novel whose characters come to feel as familiar - and as bottomlessly mysterious - as one's own family. I am awestruck by what Karan Mahajan has accomplished in The Complex -- Karen Russell, author of SWAMPLANDIA
A delicious page-turner about familial jealousy and revenge...The Complex is Mahajan's most exciting, virtuosic novel yet -- Vauhini Vara, author of THE IMMORTAL KING RAO
In the tradition of Tolstoy, Karan Mahajan has written a family saga and a historical epic that describes humanity with absolute fidelity - no kinder or crueler, wiser or duller, grander or punier than it really is -- Tony Tulathimutte, author of REJECTION
A singular portrait of a family as riven and fractious - and eternally surprising - as the country that produced it -- Madhuri Vijay, author of THE FAR FIELD
A sprawling portrait of a family living through a time of change in late 20th-century India...Mahajan's eye for detail brings to life a sweeping but ultimately grubby tale that descends into corruption, nepotism and abuse * Irish News *
A novel that is sharply alert to the poisonous gender relations at the centre of Indian life * Daily Mail *