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Soliloquies
'Soften the blow, God.'
Adil Jussawalla's Soliloquies-written when he was barely eighteen-does what only the most ambitious of literary works can it grasps for the numinous.
The protagonist Jian's struggle-marked by long hours of darkness and brief flickers of revelation, by perturbation and torment and then, a floodlight of perception-is intimate, yet epic in its sweep and animated with visions so bright, they sear.
Soliloquies, written when Adil Jussawalla was barely eighteen, is a brilliant and precocious work that tests the powers and limits of language. Thayil Editions One carries, for the first time, this lost piece of Indian literary history, as well as a one-of-a-kind interview, detailing Jussawalla's youth and friendships, and the ten guineas he once borrowed.
Adil Jussawalla's Soliloquies-written when he was barely eighteen-does what only the most ambitious of literary works can it grasps for the numinous.
The protagonist Jian's struggle-marked by long hours of darkness and brief flickers of revelation, by perturbation and torment and then, a floodlight of perception-is intimate, yet epic in its sweep and animated with visions so bright, they sear.
Soliloquies, written when Adil Jussawalla was barely eighteen, is a brilliant and precocious work that tests the powers and limits of language. Thayil Editions One carries, for the first time, this lost piece of Indian literary history, as well as a one-of-a-kind interview, detailing Jussawalla's youth and friendships, and the ten guineas he once borrowed.
- GenresPoetry
100 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 11, 2025
About the author
Adil Jussawalla
17 books11 followersPoet and critic Adil Jussawalla is an influential presence in Indian poetry in English. He has written two books of poetry, Land’s End (1962) and Missing Person (1976), edited a seminal anthology of new writing from India (1974) and co-edited an anthology of Indian prose in English (1977). He writes a complex poetry – ironic, fragmented, non-linear, formally strenuous – that evokes and indicts a dehumanised, spiritually sterile landscape, ravaged by contradiction, suspended in a perpetual state of catastrophe.
Jussawalla was born in Mumbai, and spent most of the years between 1957 and 1970 in England where he studied to be an architect, wrote plays, read English at Oxford and taught English at a language school. Returning to Mumbai, he taught English at St Xavier’s College between 1972 and 1975. An Honorary Fellow at the International Writing Program in Iowa in 1977, Jussawalla has participated in several international conferences and festivals.
Jussawalla was born in Mumbai, and spent most of the years between 1957 and 1970 in England where he studied to be an architect, wrote plays, read English at Oxford and taught English at a language school. Returning to Mumbai, he taught English at St Xavier’s College between 1972 and 1975. An Honorary Fellow at the International Writing Program in Iowa in 1977, Jussawalla has participated in several international conferences and festivals.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 24, 2025
Soliloquies feels like reading someone’s late-night thoughts- the kind you only admit to yourself. These are Adil Jussawalla’s poems from when he was just 18, so they’re raw, a little moody, a little confusing, but very real.
What I loved most is how honest it feels. Some lines hit you, some make you pause and think, and some just sound beautiful without needing deep analysis. The conversation section makes it even more interesting because you get to see where all this emotion came from.
Overall, it’s a small book with a big “I’ve felt this too” energy. Perfect if you like poetry that feels human, not formal.
What I loved most is how honest it feels. Some lines hit you, some make you pause and think, and some just sound beautiful without needing deep analysis. The conversation section makes it even more interesting because you get to see where all this emotion came from.
Overall, it’s a small book with a big “I’ve felt this too” energy. Perfect if you like poetry that feels human, not formal.
February 3, 2026
i feel like this is something Yeats would've loved. the interview is a must read for someone who wants a peek into the "indian writing in english" life, especially it's origins in bygone bombay days.
September 30, 2025
Adil Jussawalla’s "Soliloquies", written when he was barely eighteen, is not just a literary artifact unearthed from the dust of time; it is a haunting testament to the emotional and intellectual turbulence of youth. Curated as the first title in the Thayil Editions by HarperCollins, the book places together his early play-in-poems Jian with a candid and generous interview conducted by Jeet Thayil. On the surface, this slim volume might appear like a minor addition to India’s literary canon. But the more one dwells on it, the more one realizes it is anything but minor. It is an exploration of how brilliance emerges from vulnerability, how art grapples with both the sublime and the chaotic.
At its heart, the book is about the struggle of a mind that refuses to be quietened. Jian, the protagonist of the youthful play, stumbles through long stretches of darkness punctuated by sudden, almost divine illuminations. The tension between torment and revelation becomes the very rhythm of the book. What astonishes is not the maturity of language (though that exists in flashes) but the raw hunger for transcendence. The author, even as a teenager, was already testing the tensile strength of words, asking them to bear more weight than they are usually allowed to carry.
The accompanying conversation between Thayil and Jussawalla is, in many ways, the true beating heart of this book. It is here that the scaffolding of Jian and his poems comes into sharper relief. He speaks with a kind of disarming honesty, about rejecting a degree in architecture because it would rob him of time to write, about the colours and textures that obsessed him as a child, about the failures that threatened to unmake him, and the friendships and borrowings that sustained him. These are not the polished anecdotes of a veteran writer curating his legacy; they are messy, intimate, and full of contradictions. That is precisely what makes them so valuable.
The most striking theme that runs through "Soliloquies" is the restlessness of becoming. The adolescent voice in Jian is caught between self-annihilation and self-creation, between being seared by visions too bright to endure and stumbling blind in the dark. It is, in essence, a portrait of artistic consciousness in formation, tormented, self-absorbed, but also deeply curious about the numinous.
The interview expands this theme, showing us how the young poet’s hunger for expression was shaped by larger cultural and literary forces. There are glimpses of Bombay’s literary circles of the 60s and 70s, and hints of how Indian English poetry was beginning to imagine itself differently. The author's fascination with free verse, his instinctive grasp of how words can be both sharp and porous, reflects an early revolt against formality. His remark about the link between kindness and cruelty, for instance, is not just personal, it’s a poetic observation about human duality that reverberates beyond the page.
There is also a quiet but powerful theme of vulnerability. He doesn’t shield himself behind bravado. He allows failure, depression, even cruelty towards himself, to enter the conversation. In doing so, he inadvertently challenges the reader to rethink what it means to live a literary life, that it is not made of uninterrupted triumphs, but of fragility, compromises, and relentless attempts to keep language alive.
✍️ Strengths :
🔸The rawness of the poems combined with the warmth and candor of the interview create a rare kind of authenticity. The reader doesn’t just encounter an early writer; they encounter a human being in motion.
🔸The play-poems grapple with questions that belong to both philosophy and theology, revelations of God, torment as a path to perception, the search for meaning in shadows. This ambition, especially at such a young age, is extraordinary.
🔸Without Jeet Thayil’s framing and the intimacy of their dialogue, the poems might have risked being dismissed as juvenile exercises. Instead, they become contextualized as part of a lifelong struggle with language and art.
🔸The brevity of the book is a strength in itself. It feels like a single breath held too long, both fragile and potent.
✒️ Areas for Improvement :
▪️Let’s be honest, "Jian" is not fully realized. At times, the language flounders in abstraction, and certain passages feel like they’re reaching for profundity without yet possessing the craft to sustain it. This is forgivable given the age of the writer, but as a standalone piece of literature, it does not always hold.
▪️Because the work emerges from such a personal and adolescent space, it risks alienating readers who might crave narrative clarity or emotional accessibility. Some of the more cryptic lines in Jian will leave one cold.
▪️While the interview is charming, it sometimes veers towards a nostalgic stroll rather than probing deeply into the author's evolution as a poet. A more interrogative approach from Thayil might have allowed greater excavation.
In conclusion, it is not a perfect book, nor should it be. Its imperfections are its most telling truths. It is a relic, yes, but not a relic to be locked in glass. It is alive, flickering with both brilliance and awkwardness, reminding us that every great literary career begins with a storm of uncertainty.
Adil Jussawalla’s youthful Jian may not sear every reader equally, but paired with the candid, humorous, and moving conversation with Jeet Thayil, it becomes a small, radiant window into the restless heart of an artist. If one comes to it expecting polish, one may be disappointed. But if one comes seeking the messy, human beginnings of a writer who would later become one of India’s finest poets, this book will not only satisfy but also quietly move you.
At its heart, the book is about the struggle of a mind that refuses to be quietened. Jian, the protagonist of the youthful play, stumbles through long stretches of darkness punctuated by sudden, almost divine illuminations. The tension between torment and revelation becomes the very rhythm of the book. What astonishes is not the maturity of language (though that exists in flashes) but the raw hunger for transcendence. The author, even as a teenager, was already testing the tensile strength of words, asking them to bear more weight than they are usually allowed to carry.
The accompanying conversation between Thayil and Jussawalla is, in many ways, the true beating heart of this book. It is here that the scaffolding of Jian and his poems comes into sharper relief. He speaks with a kind of disarming honesty, about rejecting a degree in architecture because it would rob him of time to write, about the colours and textures that obsessed him as a child, about the failures that threatened to unmake him, and the friendships and borrowings that sustained him. These are not the polished anecdotes of a veteran writer curating his legacy; they are messy, intimate, and full of contradictions. That is precisely what makes them so valuable.
The most striking theme that runs through "Soliloquies" is the restlessness of becoming. The adolescent voice in Jian is caught between self-annihilation and self-creation, between being seared by visions too bright to endure and stumbling blind in the dark. It is, in essence, a portrait of artistic consciousness in formation, tormented, self-absorbed, but also deeply curious about the numinous.
The interview expands this theme, showing us how the young poet’s hunger for expression was shaped by larger cultural and literary forces. There are glimpses of Bombay’s literary circles of the 60s and 70s, and hints of how Indian English poetry was beginning to imagine itself differently. The author's fascination with free verse, his instinctive grasp of how words can be both sharp and porous, reflects an early revolt against formality. His remark about the link between kindness and cruelty, for instance, is not just personal, it’s a poetic observation about human duality that reverberates beyond the page.
There is also a quiet but powerful theme of vulnerability. He doesn’t shield himself behind bravado. He allows failure, depression, even cruelty towards himself, to enter the conversation. In doing so, he inadvertently challenges the reader to rethink what it means to live a literary life, that it is not made of uninterrupted triumphs, but of fragility, compromises, and relentless attempts to keep language alive.
✍️ Strengths :
🔸The rawness of the poems combined with the warmth and candor of the interview create a rare kind of authenticity. The reader doesn’t just encounter an early writer; they encounter a human being in motion.
🔸The play-poems grapple with questions that belong to both philosophy and theology, revelations of God, torment as a path to perception, the search for meaning in shadows. This ambition, especially at such a young age, is extraordinary.
🔸Without Jeet Thayil’s framing and the intimacy of their dialogue, the poems might have risked being dismissed as juvenile exercises. Instead, they become contextualized as part of a lifelong struggle with language and art.
🔸The brevity of the book is a strength in itself. It feels like a single breath held too long, both fragile and potent.
✒️ Areas for Improvement :
▪️Let’s be honest, "Jian" is not fully realized. At times, the language flounders in abstraction, and certain passages feel like they’re reaching for profundity without yet possessing the craft to sustain it. This is forgivable given the age of the writer, but as a standalone piece of literature, it does not always hold.
▪️Because the work emerges from such a personal and adolescent space, it risks alienating readers who might crave narrative clarity or emotional accessibility. Some of the more cryptic lines in Jian will leave one cold.
▪️While the interview is charming, it sometimes veers towards a nostalgic stroll rather than probing deeply into the author's evolution as a poet. A more interrogative approach from Thayil might have allowed greater excavation.
In conclusion, it is not a perfect book, nor should it be. Its imperfections are its most telling truths. It is a relic, yes, but not a relic to be locked in glass. It is alive, flickering with both brilliance and awkwardness, reminding us that every great literary career begins with a storm of uncertainty.
Adil Jussawalla’s youthful Jian may not sear every reader equally, but paired with the candid, humorous, and moving conversation with Jeet Thayil, it becomes a small, radiant window into the restless heart of an artist. If one comes to it expecting polish, one may be disappointed. But if one comes seeking the messy, human beginnings of a writer who would later become one of India’s finest poets, this book will not only satisfy but also quietly move you.
November 26, 2025
Soliloquies begins not with poetry, but with a remarkably intimate conversation between Adil Jussawalla and Jeet Thayil—a dialogue that feels less like an interview and more like sitting beside two artists as they sift through memory, history, and the making of a poet. It is through this quiet, reflective exchange that the reader first steps into Jussawalla’s world, discovering the young writer he once was and the turbulent decades that shaped him.
This conversation prepares you for the poems that follow, written during Jussawalla’s late teens. At first, the collection feels scattered; as if the thoughts are arriving too fast to hold. But soon you realise this is exactly what makes them extraordinary. Trained as an architect yet led by an instinctive poetic voice, Jussawalla dismantled the “safe” structures of Indian English poetry. His free verse mirrors how thought truly emerges—fragmented, searching, reaching.
As he and Thayil revisit the political and artistic turning points of the ’60s through the ’90s, the conversation becomes a lens through which the poems deepen. The book grows more humane, more urgent, as you begin to recognise how art and history continuously reshape one another.
Reading Soliloquies feels like lighting a cigarette at the beginning and only realising its intensity when the final line hits you. It is intimate, sharp, and profoundly alive. For anyone who cares about the evolution of Indian poetry or the fragile beginnings from which a poet emerges, this book will stay with you.
This conversation prepares you for the poems that follow, written during Jussawalla’s late teens. At first, the collection feels scattered; as if the thoughts are arriving too fast to hold. But soon you realise this is exactly what makes them extraordinary. Trained as an architect yet led by an instinctive poetic voice, Jussawalla dismantled the “safe” structures of Indian English poetry. His free verse mirrors how thought truly emerges—fragmented, searching, reaching.
As he and Thayil revisit the political and artistic turning points of the ’60s through the ’90s, the conversation becomes a lens through which the poems deepen. The book grows more humane, more urgent, as you begin to recognise how art and history continuously reshape one another.
Reading Soliloquies feels like lighting a cigarette at the beginning and only realising its intensity when the final line hits you. It is intimate, sharp, and profoundly alive. For anyone who cares about the evolution of Indian poetry or the fragile beginnings from which a poet emerges, this book will stay with you.
September 4, 2025
’Soliloquies’ is a series of conversations that transpired between Jeet Thayil and Adil Jussawala. Conversations that mainly focused on the latter's upbringing, his revelations of God, and on writing a play - Jian.
The interview gives the readers, a peek into the fascinating mind of Adil, his obsession with free verse, colours and words. The candid dialogues capture the peaks and pitfalls of boyhood, showing how they shaped his later years. Adil fondly recounts his love for poems, the leap of faith he took whilst rejecting a prestigious Architecture degree for the lack of time for the written word.
He says - ”It was just that I liked shaping things with paints and pencils and crayons, and I liked shaping things with words.”
Whilst narrating his highs he doesn't shy away from being vulnerable and talking about his significant lows. His life was influenced by E.M.Forster and Ramnath Goenka, both significant figures of literature. The read briefly highlights literary movements that existed at Bombay during the 70s.
Stitched with elements of philosophy, melancholy with generous sprinkle of humor, ’Soliloquies’ is endearing with heart at its right place.
”I think there's a link between kindness and cruelty. You can be kind to some and cruel to others, including yourself.”
The interview gives the readers, a peek into the fascinating mind of Adil, his obsession with free verse, colours and words. The candid dialogues capture the peaks and pitfalls of boyhood, showing how they shaped his later years. Adil fondly recounts his love for poems, the leap of faith he took whilst rejecting a prestigious Architecture degree for the lack of time for the written word.
He says - ”It was just that I liked shaping things with paints and pencils and crayons, and I liked shaping things with words.”
Whilst narrating his highs he doesn't shy away from being vulnerable and talking about his significant lows. His life was influenced by E.M.Forster and Ramnath Goenka, both significant figures of literature. The read briefly highlights literary movements that existed at Bombay during the 70s.
Stitched with elements of philosophy, melancholy with generous sprinkle of humor, ’Soliloquies’ is endearing with heart at its right place.
”I think there's a link between kindness and cruelty. You can be kind to some and cruel to others, including yourself.”
October 16, 2025
Soliloquies: Conversation and Poems , Thayil editions Book -1 , is not just a book, it feels like opening a window into the poet’s youth. Written when he was only eighteen, carry the raw intensity of a mind searching for light, struggling with shadows, and daring to put his inner world into words, filled with torment, revelation, and vision ~ a reminder of how poetry can be both fragile and fierce.
What makes this collection even more special is the conversation with Jeet Thayil, where adil looks back at his early work with honesty and reflection. Reading it feels like sitting across from him, listening to the story of a young writer who once wrestled with language, rejection, and faith in art.
This book is beautiful not just because of its words, but because of the courage it carries ~ the courage of a young poet daring to write, unfiltered and the wisdom of an older poet revisiting those beginnings. For anyone who loves poetry, or simply wants to witness the birth of a creativity , this book is a gift. Jeet thayil works are quite intense , glorified and deeply acknowledging. You will feel him , his words , would love to read more and more.
What makes this collection even more special is the conversation with Jeet Thayil, where adil looks back at his early work with honesty and reflection. Reading it feels like sitting across from him, listening to the story of a young writer who once wrestled with language, rejection, and faith in art.
This book is beautiful not just because of its words, but because of the courage it carries ~ the courage of a young poet daring to write, unfiltered and the wisdom of an older poet revisiting those beginnings. For anyone who loves poetry, or simply wants to witness the birth of a creativity , this book is a gift. Jeet thayil works are quite intense , glorified and deeply acknowledging. You will feel him , his words , would love to read more and more.
September 2, 2025
Soliloquies by Adil Jussawalla is the first title in a series under Thayil Editions by HarperCollins India, curated by Jeet Thayil. It's a short read consisting a candid interview between Jeet Thayil and Adil Jussawalla along with a set of poems that Jussawalla wrote as part of a play, Jian, during his late teenage years.
The candid conversation between the two great minds is a cozy trip down the memory lane, the reader gets an insight into Adil Jussawalla's early childhood, career, hardships and wins along with a glimpse about the poets and poetry landscape of the era gone by. It's the comfortable dialogue that makes the better part of the book-which is absolutely exquisite! It reminds subtly to try, fail, re-try, explore and live life as it comes for beauty lies in the experiences which are later cherished as memories.
Enjoyable, refreshing and contemplative this little book is just what you need when you are feeling lost and need a shoulder to lean on. It's a testament to a life explored and a legacy that shall shine forever.
The candid conversation between the two great minds is a cozy trip down the memory lane, the reader gets an insight into Adil Jussawalla's early childhood, career, hardships and wins along with a glimpse about the poets and poetry landscape of the era gone by. It's the comfortable dialogue that makes the better part of the book-which is absolutely exquisite! It reminds subtly to try, fail, re-try, explore and live life as it comes for beauty lies in the experiences which are later cherished as memories.
Enjoyable, refreshing and contemplative this little book is just what you need when you are feeling lost and need a shoulder to lean on. It's a testament to a life explored and a legacy that shall shine forever.
July 27, 2025
So thrilled to be involved in the making of this brilliant series—20 pathbreaking books of poetry, short fiction and conversations with some of India's finest writers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews