For someone who has never left his ashram-never mind his country-Kalki seems remarkably unfazed by the drinking, smoking, and partying he soon becomes subject to. A larger flaw emerges, however, when Kalki, now 22, arrives in New York. These contextualizing passages, though not entirely necessary, don’t significantly flaw the book. Occasionally, though, she does slip into a slightly didactic tone when explaining Hindu practices her assumption seems to be that her audience is entirely Western. “And when that godhood broke”-when his faith finally gives way-“reality itself had shattered to pieces around me.” Throughout the book, Sindu’s prose has a textured intricacy that never becomes florid. “My divinity had been as real as flowers, or the sun, or my own skin,” Kalki thinks. Sindu’s excavations of Kalki’s internal struggles are detailed, nuanced, and rich. Almost immediately, however, Kalki has reason to doubt that he is what his father says he is. His father builds an ashram around him, and the faithful come from near and far for healing sessions, rituals, and ceremonies. In other words, Kalki, who is 10 when the novel begins, is himself a god. Kalki is born with blue skin, prompting his family and Tamil Nadu villagers to believe that he is the latest-and last-human avatar of Vishnu, the Hindu god. Sindu’s third book begins with a bit of what might or might not be divinity. Traveling from India to the underground rock scene of New York City, Blue-Skinned Gods explores ethnic, gender, and sexual identities, and spans continents and faiths, in an expansive and heartfelt look at the need for belief in our globally interconnected world.A blue-skinned boy is believed to be a god. Over the next decade, his family unravels, and every relationship he relied on-father, mother, aunt, uncle, cousin-starts falling apart. While he seems to pass them, Kalki begins to question his divinity. In Kalki’s tenth year, he is confronted with three trials that will test his power and prove his divine status and, his father tells him, spread his fame worldwide. His father sets up an ashram, and the family makes a living off of the pilgrims who seek the child’s blessings and miracles, believing young Kalki to be the tenth human incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy is born with blue skin. From the award-winning author of Marriage of a Thousand Lies comes a brilliantly written, globe-spanning novel about identity, faith, family, and sexuality.

Blue-Skinned Gods by S.J. Sindu