Fieldwork as a Sex Object

by Meena Kandasamy

A new novel of incels, influencers and AK-47s – from the Women’s Prize-shortlisted poet and provocateur

‘One of the most urgent voices of tomorrow’ Harper’s Bazaar

I mute the audio. I replay the video four times.
It is not me. It is my fucking face.

Amrita Chaturvedi goes by Amy. Amy identifies as a communist on Twitter (her profile omits a stint on Big Brother and a millionaire daddy running the show at the High Court of Delhi).

Then reality hits: a deepfake porno of her forwarded around by WhatsApp aunties goes viral. On her birthday, Amy wakes to a mob stoning in the digital town square that could cancel the likes of Kim Kardashian.

Her executioners? A cartel of unhinged virgins styling themselves after V for Vendetta – except these keyboard warriors are on a ruthless crusade to wipe out desi jezebels and Make India Hindu Again.

A muscular, monumental work of internet literature in which the online turns offline turns bloody, Fieldwork as a Sex Object is not a novel you read but a novel that reads you: what are you prepared to risk for what you claim to believe?

Genres: Fiction, Adult, Contemporary, Feminism, Literary Fiction, India

240 pages, Hardcover

Published May 21, 2026

About the author

Dr Meena Kandasamy FRSL is a poet and provocateur who has spent two decades triggering the far right. She’s been translated into over 20 languages.

Her previous novel, When I Hit You, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize, Jhalak Prize and Hindu Literary Prize. It was also Book of the Year in the Financial Times, Observer, Daily Telegraph and Irish Times. Her poetry collection, Ms Militancy, went viral across South Asia. In 2022, PEN Germany awarded her a medal for being ‘a fearless fighter for human rights.’

Meena has two sons. Her new novel, Fieldwork as a Sex Object, is out now.