Set in a time of rising Hindu nationalism, Quarterlife is a meditation on the forces that shape political belief. The novel came out in India in 2023, where it was a finalist for five literary awards and won the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year and the Ramnath Goenka Sahitya Samman for Best Fiction. It was published internationally in 2024-25 and has been named a best book or a recommended read of the year by over a dozen publications. Translations are underway in German and Italian. 

Praise for Quarterlife

'An intimate epic set in Modi's India… Quarterlife is a revelation, full to the brim with muscular provocations on democracy, progress, radicalisation, majoritarianism, modernity and tradition… It deserves the widest attention.'

―Yagnishsing Dawoor, The Observer

'A stunning debut whose concerns reach way beyond India’s borders... Quarterlife foreshadows the impact of a lurch to the radical right, which is only recently being felt in Europe and the US.'

―Jane Wallace, Asian Review of Books

'A fearless achievement… Most contemporary novels are too narrow to allow for the truly dialogical. Rege, by contrast, redefines the dialogical as a kind of tight counterpoint… Diversity is here the means of inquiry, inextricable from the questions the novel asks of diversity… Rege's seriousness of purpose runs like an electrical wire through the book.'

―James Wood, The New Yorker

'By a distance the best debut of the year... The scope of the book's ideas and textured rendering of its characters contribute to an oceanic feeling of simultaneous scale and intimacy. It is akin to the sensation we experience when immersed in the great Russian fiction of the 19th century… And as with the Russian classics, the beating heart of Quarterlife is the quest for meaning.'

 ―Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

'A remarkable debut novel that feels as if it had been lived with and thought through for years, its every choice deeply considered and yet also brave…  Quarterlife enacts the splendors and miseries of democracy in a deeply antidemocratic moment.'

 ―Nicholas Dames, Public Books

'An acutely portrayed and ambitious reckoning with contemporary Indian sociopolitics and ethics… Rege’s greatest gift as a novelist is in staging questions without offering conclusive answers.' 

―Sana Goyal, The Guardian

'Essential… one of the most ambitious literary works to come out in years.'

 ―John M. Clum, New York Journal of Books

'A landmark novel... Rege has a vast descriptive repertoire, is willing to take astonishing risks with structure, and is immaculate in her numerous interiority dives. Her hand is so sure it is often impossible to believe that Quarterlife is a debut.'

―Tanuj Solanki, The Indian Express

'Steering the narrative away from becoming a crusade to find reason in political pockets, the story bears witness to an extraordinary moment in history. Quarterlife is a testament to the clarity truth can gain from craft.' 

―Shubhangi Tiwari, Scroll India

‘Quarterlife is one of the best character-driven novels out in India this year. It is wholly about how people think, how their perceptions shape their behaviour, and how those perceptions may change... This, one feels, is a reflection of reality.'

―Madhulika Liddle, Open Magazine, India

'You want to admire the way Rege uses words to cut and soothe all at once — to read some of the sentences aloud and take pleasure in how they sound... The rhythm in her sentences feels new, and marks the arrival of a voice we have not heard before in Indian literature in English.'

―Swati Daftuar, The Hindu

'Quarterlife uses the form of the novel to stage a richly complex, open-ended discussion… In its refusal to privilege any one standpoint and its use of language to bolster and simultaneously unravel its characters, it is an ambitious, demanding, and deeply rewarding novel.' 

—Stuti Khanna, India Forum

'What a blazingly original voice, what a fiercely intelligent engagement with world politics and culture. Devika Rege is at the forefront of a new generation of authors who are challenging notions of what transnational literature can do.'

―Vauhini Vara, author of The Immortal King Rao

'Finally, a novel about our roiling times by a writer of clear-eyed empathy, the ability to listen closely and to step out of cosmopolitan cocoons. I am reminded of the genius of Kiran Nagarkar. Utterly masterful and moving.'

―Gauri Gill, author of Acts of Appearance

'Dazzling, sophisticated, and wholly achieved in its ambition, Quarterlife emerges out of the tradition of the philosophical novel. Rege is a transformative novelist.'

―Maureen McLane, author of My Poetics