UPDATE: THE FIFTH INFLECTION (the global edition of THE SENTENCE) is now available in eARC form on NetGalley: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/boo...

UPDATE: The US/UK/global edition of THE SENTENCE - titled THE FIFTH INFLECTION - is now available for pre-order. In case you've added THE SENTENCE to your Goodreads shelves, but are not from South Asia, THE FIFTH INFLECTION is the edition that will be available in your countries.

Pre-order links:

USA/world: https://www.simonandschuster.com/book...

UK: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/bo...

UPDATE: THE SENTENCE - which won the Ignyte Award for best adult novel in 2025 - will be coming out in the US (Saga Press) and the UK (Solaris) in January 2027, with a new title: THE FIFTH INFLECTION. I will share the Goodreads link to the book once it's up.

My new SF novel, The Sentence, is now out wherever books are sold, and online to order:

https://www.amazon.in/Sentence-Gautam...

The Sentence is at the boundary of science fiction, criminal law, and alternative political structures. Here is the blurb:

What if you’ve been frozen in stasis for a hundred years for a crime you may or may not have committed?

An impoverished young man, Jagat, is found guilty of murder. For his crime, he is sentenced to the highest form of punishment—the sleep of death for a century, with the promise of revival should his innocence ever be proven.

But his act sparks a bloody conflict in the great city of Peruma, with the Commune, an anarchist collective of workers, revolting against the Council, which has ruled Peruma for four hundred years. Drained by a war without end, Council and Commune negotiate a hundred-year treaty that is to be enforced by an impartial body: the guardians of the Confederation.

And now, a century later, the Charter is a week away from lapsing. Tensions run high in Peruma. As an uncertain future looms, Nila, a young guardian, is approached by a mysterious woman who insists that Jagat’s case be reopened before it’s too late. Drawn by the prospect of undoing a possible historical injustice at a fraught time, Nila agrees. But as she begins to unearth the past, forces, known and unknown, thwart her at every turn.

What secrets does the city hold? Who is working in the shadows against her—and why? What is the price of resurrecting a martyr? The Sentence raises questions of justice, rights and ethics that will echo in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page.