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Keeping in Touch
From award-winning writer Anjali Joseph, a compelling new novel about a dysfunctional love affair.
Meet Ved, a British investor heading back to his Indian roots with a business proposition: a lightbulb called the Everlasting Lucifer.
Meet Keteki, an art curator with a nomadic lifestyle, on her way home to Assam.
In Heathrow airport, on the way to Mumbai, their paths cross, sparking an affair that soon turns into an intricate power game — and a complicated journey towards intimacy.
Meet Ved, a British investor heading back to his Indian roots with a business proposition: a lightbulb called the Everlasting Lucifer.
Meet Keteki, an art curator with a nomadic lifestyle, on her way home to Assam.
In Heathrow airport, on the way to Mumbai, their paths cross, sparking an affair that soon turns into an intricate power game — and a complicated journey towards intimacy.
240 pages, Paperback
Published May 31, 2022
About the author
Anjali Joseph
9 books44 followersAnjali Joseph was born in Bombay in 1978. She read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has taught English at the Sorbonne. More recently she has written for the Times of India in Bombay and been a Commissioning Editor for ELLE (India). She graduated from the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia with distinction in 2008. Saraswati Park is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 17 reviews
December 17, 2023
I couldn't see any point to this story of upper middle class people roaming around with existential crisis.
The unmarried Bohemian woman in her thirties with childhood baggage and roots in a hillside village, and the men who fall for her , is a much used trope.
I found the characters mildly repellant , couldnt empathise with any, and found the story a bit boring .
This was a nasty surprise because I remember loving the author's other books.
The unmarried Bohemian woman in her thirties with childhood baggage and roots in a hillside village, and the men who fall for her , is a much used trope.
I found the characters mildly repellant , couldnt empathise with any, and found the story a bit boring .
This was a nasty surprise because I remember loving the author's other books.
July 23, 2022
This novel is a look at a dysfunctional modern relationship between two people in their late-30s: Ved, a British investor heading back to his Indian roots with a business proposition on a new lightbulb that lasts forever, and Keteki, an art curator with a nomadic lifestyle. They cross paths at Heathrow, on the way to Mumbai, as Keteki is heading home to Assam. With them both leading different lives in different countries, will they be able to maintain a long distance relationship and keep in touch?
The author’s writing is sparse and matter-of-fact when it comes to narrating this relationship. There’s no flowery romance to it, just two people who like each other but sceptical perhaps about finding true love. In this novel they are both navigating how to and if they wish to merge their separate lives. Despite Ved and Keteki being more experienced in relationships, the awkward/uncertain dynamics and challenges of a new relationship are ever present and we witness the misunderstandings between the characters while they are apart and how neither of them want to appear vulnerable.
When it comes to describing Assam though (one of the main places that provides the setting of the novel in addition to London), it is rich with detail and gives us an insight into what it is like living in Assam, India. There’s a question of what one would identify as being home in Keeping in Touch, which is explored as Ved and Keteki travel between the two cities to meet.
The novel is short (just over 200 pages) which at times felt quite fleeting. It almost reads like an extended version of a short story, which will leave its mark and make you think about it after reading as it feels a little unfinished.
An interesting and quirky read. It felt a little slow at times but it did wrap up nicely towards the end.
The author’s writing is sparse and matter-of-fact when it comes to narrating this relationship. There’s no flowery romance to it, just two people who like each other but sceptical perhaps about finding true love. In this novel they are both navigating how to and if they wish to merge their separate lives. Despite Ved and Keteki being more experienced in relationships, the awkward/uncertain dynamics and challenges of a new relationship are ever present and we witness the misunderstandings between the characters while they are apart and how neither of them want to appear vulnerable.
When it comes to describing Assam though (one of the main places that provides the setting of the novel in addition to London), it is rich with detail and gives us an insight into what it is like living in Assam, India. There’s a question of what one would identify as being home in Keeping in Touch, which is explored as Ved and Keteki travel between the two cities to meet.
The novel is short (just over 200 pages) which at times felt quite fleeting. It almost reads like an extended version of a short story, which will leave its mark and make you think about it after reading as it feels a little unfinished.
An interesting and quirky read. It felt a little slow at times but it did wrap up nicely towards the end.
November 18, 2025
Keeping in Touch is a hesitant love story, a crab dance of a mating adventure playing out across London and Assam between the lead protagonists - a commitment phobic, trying-too-hard-to-be-mysterious Keteki with a dark shadowy past of her own, and a pitifully eager-but-unsure Ved.
The language is crisp; the sinewy, mysterious landscape of Assam beguiling - almost to the point of being a defining character of the novel itself, and the tension in the push-pull of the two protagonists, addictive.
Yet, despite all that, and a very visual cinematic appeal in the storytelling, the narrative appeared a little like an incongruent patchwork quilt knitted by very different hands, not quite in sync with the other, nor with the overall design of the plot. I wish there were a deeper exploration of the mental landscapes of the two people - especially Keteki who seemed fairly pretentious to me.
There isn't a grand ending or denouement as such, barring how each character gets entangled into the strange contours of the other... never quite sure where they stand - symptomatic of modern day relationships.
'Keeping in Touch' isn't a must-read maybe but a good pick-me-up at an airport bookstore for light reading on a long journey.
The language is crisp; the sinewy, mysterious landscape of Assam beguiling - almost to the point of being a defining character of the novel itself, and the tension in the push-pull of the two protagonists, addictive.
Yet, despite all that, and a very visual cinematic appeal in the storytelling, the narrative appeared a little like an incongruent patchwork quilt knitted by very different hands, not quite in sync with the other, nor with the overall design of the plot. I wish there were a deeper exploration of the mental landscapes of the two people - especially Keteki who seemed fairly pretentious to me.
There isn't a grand ending or denouement as such, barring how each character gets entangled into the strange contours of the other... never quite sure where they stand - symptomatic of modern day relationships.
'Keeping in Touch' isn't a must-read maybe but a good pick-me-up at an airport bookstore for light reading on a long journey.
July 17, 2022
3.75 stars
October 15, 2021
I interviewed the author for Feminism in India. Click here.
‘Falling in love is probably always teenage in ways’: Anjali Joseph, Author of ‘Keeping in Touch’
Anjali Joseph’s fourth novel Keeping in Touch (Context, an imprint of Westland Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2021) is not only a tale of modern-day love, but an exploration into the deepest recesses of one’s being to understand what a human connection is all about. After reading this book, one is bound to agree with her mentor Amit Chaudhuri, who praises Joseph saying, “she attends to questions for which not every novelist is equipped.”
Feminism in India got in touch with Joseph to discuss the book.
Edited excerpts:
You mentioned in an interview that you repurposed a short story you wrote as an eight-year-old for this novel. What made you unearth a thirty-five-year-old material, and what insights it had that you found still relevant?
Anjali Joseph: I didn’t unearth that story, as such, but the title stayed in my mind, and for some reason it made its presence felt when I was writing a short story in 2015 that turned into the novel’s opening chapter. I guess I just liked the name ‘Everlasting Lucifer’ for a lightbulb.
The principal characters in your book are in their late 30s, experiencing a newfound, teenage-like love. What drew you into the worlds of your characters Ved and Keteki?
Anjali Joseph: Falling in love is probably always teenage in ways—the awkwardness, the uncertainty. But there’s also a characteristic of late-30s love that I’d noticed, which could be summed up as the idea that a person by that age has a set of behaviours to help them cope with things they find difficult, whether that’s intimacy or rejection. Sometimes letting go of the belief you know how to organise your own life is necessary if something new is to happen.
Early in the book Ved says “you can never go home again”. Besides exploring modern-day relationships, the book is also about ‘keeping in touch’ with one’s idea of a home, be it a person, place, state of mind, and how one wants to find ‘everlasting’ happiness in that thing. Would you agree that it’s one of the functions of the book? Or is there nothing like enlightenment of this sort in life?
Anjali Joseph: It’s one of the things that intrigues me most: Does an enlightened person ever snap at their family? Show a moment of vanity? Where does the humanness go? But for most of us, I don’t imagine that enlightenment is either that far away or, some kind of, permanent external shift that takes place. It’s just a very powerful reorientation. You might lose awareness for a moment or a few hours, and then drop the things you’ve been entangling yourself in again. In the novel, the idea of keeping in touch is definitely keeping in touch with that quiet inner perspective that isn’t really interested in the external drama of your own life. The more one connects with that, the easier it is to connect with other things and people. I think both the protagonists in the novel are seeking that sense of home, Keteki more actively than Ved.
Did this contrast—manufacturing a bulb that lasts forever in a strange land that often defies scientific temperament and explanation—appeal to you when you began writing the book? Or was it a measured step to explore the consequences of this convolution through this story involving two people unlikely to fall in love?
Anjali Joseph: I don’t know that I thought of it as a contrast. I loved living in Assam, and I was fascinated by the different spiritual traditions and perspectives on spirituality that I came across, whether goddess worship and tantra or the Vaishnavism of Xonkordeb. I loved the fact that Assam does not give itself up easily to a visitor in terms of understanding its culture—it is a beautifully complex and sophisticated place, infused with art and irony. And of course, that complexity also makes it a great setting for a comedy of errors with an outsider such as Ved.
Would you like to share why you felt Assam and London were the best-fit places for this story?
Anjali Joseph: I think I’ve answered half of this question. As for London, and Suffolk, I was interested partly in how Keteki would feel and see when not at home in Assam. I was also interested in having fun with an excursus of sorts in the chapter set in a Suffolk pub, the Rushcutters, and playing with a kind of early 20th century folk aesthetics, like in the novel Mr Weston’s Good Wine by T. F. Powys, or Stanley Spencer’s paintings.
As much as there’s light in the book, the socio-political structures and unpleasant childhood experiences make this one a dark novel, too. What was the purpose of writing this book for you? What did writing it do to you?
Anjali Joseph: I feel there’s a process through writing a novel of living and becoming the person who will have written that novel. So, I don’t think the novel exactly did things to me so much as allowed me to go through a certain journey. Two things stand out. One is the idea of revisiting the difficult past in order to release it and become lighter. The other is the simple idea of joy, as the orientation for life.
With regards to the phrase ‘keeping in touch’, there’s Mark with whom Keteki had worked a lot but doesn’t seem to know him well; Tuku’s world, again, remains aloof to the family; then there are many others in this short book … Would you agree that this story is an exercise in navigating chance, calculated, and desired connections?
Anjali Joseph: Connection is definitely at the heart of the story, and connection is both more intimate and more of the moment than the way we often think of knowing people, or even knowing ourselves. All of us are more like moving targets than our thinking takes into account, so keeping in touch makes more sense in that fluidity than any static idea of familiarity.
Keteki says in the book “when things are put into words, they lose some of their basic essence”. As a novelist, dealing with words is your business, how do you exercise restraint in a way that the ‘essence’ gets preserved when you are shaping the utterances in the form of writing? Also, is it really Keteki or you who says this?
Anjali Joseph: Keteki is expressing a principle that I think any artist feels, which is that it’s useful to concentrate on what you want to transmit, rather than on admiring the means of transmission. It’s also one of the basic principles of tantra, that what is fully described stops working.
It’s an interesting question for anyone making art, because I don’t know that this is an age where people are so attuned to any type of mystery, so in a way the immediate rewards are probably more emphatic for the kind of art that tells you what it’s going to do. Does it, then points out that it’s done it? I’m not speaking directly through the character, but I do agree with her.
Experimenting with career and life in general have become a serious venture for most people. But this adventure is now boring them. Were you trying to explore this conundrum via Keteki, who says, “The way things are, going off, helping other people with things, making them happy for a while, then starting again, it’s getting boring…People like me having around”? What’s this feeling, of trying to avert that you wanted to attract because it has now come to stay a bit longer with you?
Anjali Joseph: The part you quote is really about Keteki feeling a dissatisfaction with the way her presence seems to provide something to the people around her that she can’t completely experience. For her, avoiding continuity has been a way of life since her childhood. But continuity wasn’t available to her, just as in your larger question, the kinds of life that our parents or grandparents led where they may have had two or three jobs over a lifetime, is less likely to be the shape of things now.
What did you find most difficult to do while writing this book?
Anjali Joseph: When I began the book, I liked the idea of publishing it quickly or even in a serialised form. I’d been re-reading Dickens and I was entertained with the way he composed long novels, pulling out different plot threads, introducing characters, and then picking up some but not all of those threads as he went on. I liked the idea of more immediacy. But that didn’t prove to be quite the way it worked; English language publishing probably doesn’t work like that in most cases, yet.
‘Falling in love is probably always teenage in ways’: Anjali Joseph, Author of ‘Keeping in Touch’
Anjali Joseph’s fourth novel Keeping in Touch (Context, an imprint of Westland Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2021) is not only a tale of modern-day love, but an exploration into the deepest recesses of one’s being to understand what a human connection is all about. After reading this book, one is bound to agree with her mentor Amit Chaudhuri, who praises Joseph saying, “she attends to questions for which not every novelist is equipped.”
Feminism in India got in touch with Joseph to discuss the book.
Edited excerpts:
You mentioned in an interview that you repurposed a short story you wrote as an eight-year-old for this novel. What made you unearth a thirty-five-year-old material, and what insights it had that you found still relevant?
Anjali Joseph: I didn’t unearth that story, as such, but the title stayed in my mind, and for some reason it made its presence felt when I was writing a short story in 2015 that turned into the novel’s opening chapter. I guess I just liked the name ‘Everlasting Lucifer’ for a lightbulb.
The principal characters in your book are in their late 30s, experiencing a newfound, teenage-like love. What drew you into the worlds of your characters Ved and Keteki?
Anjali Joseph: Falling in love is probably always teenage in ways—the awkwardness, the uncertainty. But there’s also a characteristic of late-30s love that I’d noticed, which could be summed up as the idea that a person by that age has a set of behaviours to help them cope with things they find difficult, whether that’s intimacy or rejection. Sometimes letting go of the belief you know how to organise your own life is necessary if something new is to happen.
Early in the book Ved says “you can never go home again”. Besides exploring modern-day relationships, the book is also about ‘keeping in touch’ with one’s idea of a home, be it a person, place, state of mind, and how one wants to find ‘everlasting’ happiness in that thing. Would you agree that it’s one of the functions of the book? Or is there nothing like enlightenment of this sort in life?
Anjali Joseph: It’s one of the things that intrigues me most: Does an enlightened person ever snap at their family? Show a moment of vanity? Where does the humanness go? But for most of us, I don’t imagine that enlightenment is either that far away or, some kind of, permanent external shift that takes place. It’s just a very powerful reorientation. You might lose awareness for a moment or a few hours, and then drop the things you’ve been entangling yourself in again. In the novel, the idea of keeping in touch is definitely keeping in touch with that quiet inner perspective that isn’t really interested in the external drama of your own life. The more one connects with that, the easier it is to connect with other things and people. I think both the protagonists in the novel are seeking that sense of home, Keteki more actively than Ved.
Did this contrast—manufacturing a bulb that lasts forever in a strange land that often defies scientific temperament and explanation—appeal to you when you began writing the book? Or was it a measured step to explore the consequences of this convolution through this story involving two people unlikely to fall in love?
Anjali Joseph: I don’t know that I thought of it as a contrast. I loved living in Assam, and I was fascinated by the different spiritual traditions and perspectives on spirituality that I came across, whether goddess worship and tantra or the Vaishnavism of Xonkordeb. I loved the fact that Assam does not give itself up easily to a visitor in terms of understanding its culture—it is a beautifully complex and sophisticated place, infused with art and irony. And of course, that complexity also makes it a great setting for a comedy of errors with an outsider such as Ved.
Would you like to share why you felt Assam and London were the best-fit places for this story?
Anjali Joseph: I think I’ve answered half of this question. As for London, and Suffolk, I was interested partly in how Keteki would feel and see when not at home in Assam. I was also interested in having fun with an excursus of sorts in the chapter set in a Suffolk pub, the Rushcutters, and playing with a kind of early 20th century folk aesthetics, like in the novel Mr Weston’s Good Wine by T. F. Powys, or Stanley Spencer’s paintings.
As much as there’s light in the book, the socio-political structures and unpleasant childhood experiences make this one a dark novel, too. What was the purpose of writing this book for you? What did writing it do to you?
Anjali Joseph: I feel there’s a process through writing a novel of living and becoming the person who will have written that novel. So, I don’t think the novel exactly did things to me so much as allowed me to go through a certain journey. Two things stand out. One is the idea of revisiting the difficult past in order to release it and become lighter. The other is the simple idea of joy, as the orientation for life.
With regards to the phrase ‘keeping in touch’, there’s Mark with whom Keteki had worked a lot but doesn’t seem to know him well; Tuku’s world, again, remains aloof to the family; then there are many others in this short book … Would you agree that this story is an exercise in navigating chance, calculated, and desired connections?
Anjali Joseph: Connection is definitely at the heart of the story, and connection is both more intimate and more of the moment than the way we often think of knowing people, or even knowing ourselves. All of us are more like moving targets than our thinking takes into account, so keeping in touch makes more sense in that fluidity than any static idea of familiarity.
Keteki says in the book “when things are put into words, they lose some of their basic essence”. As a novelist, dealing with words is your business, how do you exercise restraint in a way that the ‘essence’ gets preserved when you are shaping the utterances in the form of writing? Also, is it really Keteki or you who says this?
Anjali Joseph: Keteki is expressing a principle that I think any artist feels, which is that it’s useful to concentrate on what you want to transmit, rather than on admiring the means of transmission. It’s also one of the basic principles of tantra, that what is fully described stops working.
It’s an interesting question for anyone making art, because I don’t know that this is an age where people are so attuned to any type of mystery, so in a way the immediate rewards are probably more emphatic for the kind of art that tells you what it’s going to do. Does it, then points out that it’s done it? I’m not speaking directly through the character, but I do agree with her.
Experimenting with career and life in general have become a serious venture for most people. But this adventure is now boring them. Were you trying to explore this conundrum via Keteki, who says, “The way things are, going off, helping other people with things, making them happy for a while, then starting again, it’s getting boring…People like me having around”? What’s this feeling, of trying to avert that you wanted to attract because it has now come to stay a bit longer with you?
Anjali Joseph: The part you quote is really about Keteki feeling a dissatisfaction with the way her presence seems to provide something to the people around her that she can’t completely experience. For her, avoiding continuity has been a way of life since her childhood. But continuity wasn’t available to her, just as in your larger question, the kinds of life that our parents or grandparents led where they may have had two or three jobs over a lifetime, is less likely to be the shape of things now.
What did you find most difficult to do while writing this book?
Anjali Joseph: When I began the book, I liked the idea of publishing it quickly or even in a serialised form. I’d been re-reading Dickens and I was entertained with the way he composed long novels, pulling out different plot threads, introducing characters, and then picking up some but not all of those threads as he went on. I liked the idea of more immediacy. But that didn’t prove to be quite the way it worked; English language publishing probably doesn’t work like that in most cases, yet.
August 20, 2021
Keeping in Touch by Anjali Joseph is a contemporary, turbulent romance written in a modern style for a modern reader.
Set in the beautiful state of Assam, the novel opens with Keteki, a 39 years old commitment-phobic , beautiful and intelligent art curator from Assam meeting Ved Ved (Ved twice) , a 38 years old Indian origin, London based investment banker, also a toxic bachelor ,planning to invest in a light bulb called "Everlasting Lucifer"in Heathrow Airport.
While Keteki, as her name suggests is like the Keteki bird ,uninterested in taking responsibility in her life, Ved Ved means knowledge.First Ved for doctor and second for knowledge. While they may seem an unusual combo, what connects them together is their past painful experience in life, which make them reside in each other and let go of the pain but physical intimacy seems easy to them than taking the big step of marriage in life.
What happens when two free-spirited, reluctant lovers based in London and Assam who are averse to commitment yet affectionate and adorable try to 'keep in touch' with each other?
This novel took me by surprise. I was expecting a casual romance between two long distance lovers, but Anjali's magical pen did it's work by taking the novel to a different level. There were lots of layers to the novel. The intricate, subtle expression of reality , the celebration of emotions to it's core, bold and unrestrained portrayal of sensuality, modern day transience in relationships...
What I loved the most was the lyrical description of Assam. The way she described the beauty of Assam, especially Majuli, Golaghat and Joypur gave me chills. Also, reading the novel helped me get a glimpse of Assamese culture, history and food. Hailing from the South, it was great knowing about this northeastern state in detail.
While the author was successful in portraying the difficulties and foils of a modern day relationship, I somehow felt the narrative slow at places which felt more like a test of patience but the ending was so satisfying and felt like a reward.
Overall, I enjoyed the read and do recommend for someone looking for novelty in writing.
Set in the beautiful state of Assam, the novel opens with Keteki, a 39 years old commitment-phobic , beautiful and intelligent art curator from Assam meeting Ved Ved (Ved twice) , a 38 years old Indian origin, London based investment banker, also a toxic bachelor ,planning to invest in a light bulb called "Everlasting Lucifer"in Heathrow Airport.
While Keteki, as her name suggests is like the Keteki bird ,uninterested in taking responsibility in her life, Ved Ved means knowledge.First Ved for doctor and second for knowledge. While they may seem an unusual combo, what connects them together is their past painful experience in life, which make them reside in each other and let go of the pain but physical intimacy seems easy to them than taking the big step of marriage in life.
What happens when two free-spirited, reluctant lovers based in London and Assam who are averse to commitment yet affectionate and adorable try to 'keep in touch' with each other?
This novel took me by surprise. I was expecting a casual romance between two long distance lovers, but Anjali's magical pen did it's work by taking the novel to a different level. There were lots of layers to the novel. The intricate, subtle expression of reality , the celebration of emotions to it's core, bold and unrestrained portrayal of sensuality, modern day transience in relationships...
What I loved the most was the lyrical description of Assam. The way she described the beauty of Assam, especially Majuli, Golaghat and Joypur gave me chills. Also, reading the novel helped me get a glimpse of Assamese culture, history and food. Hailing from the South, it was great knowing about this northeastern state in detail.
While the author was successful in portraying the difficulties and foils of a modern day relationship, I somehow felt the narrative slow at places which felt more like a test of patience but the ending was so satisfying and felt like a reward.
Overall, I enjoyed the read and do recommend for someone looking for novelty in writing.
Read
October 4, 2021The story stretches out the narrow boundaries of magic realism — you will find yourself more grounded in the matter-of-fact world we live in — where Joseph transmutes the ‘sameness of everydayness’ into the extraordinary. You will discover every shower bringing out its own special rainbow. Keeping in Touch is a very old-fashioned love story in a modern time, where the seduction of a 30-something British Asian man by an Assamese woman assumes epic undertones. This is a story well told. It is hard to put the book down after you have read the first few pages. The aftertaste lingers long after the book is done and dusted.
Ganesh Saili, The New Indian Express
A fragile story of reluctant commitments … this is not just a love story but an intricate political saga of contemporary times. The author has interwoven a layered narrative … Anjali Joseph has written an outstanding novel. An excellent read.
Jasmine Sandhu Sandhawalia, The Tribune (India)
Anjali Joseph excels in these middle class stories. It is almost as if it is in the spirit of Jane Austen, to polish the two inches of ivory … Interestingly, this novel is probably a fine example of a new brand of diasporic literature that blends the cultures of the two lands deftly and unapologetically. It is evident in little details such as the use of Assamese words in the course of conversation or to describe dishes … Keeping in Touch is a very old-fashioned love story in a modern setting. It is beautifully told. It is impossible to put down. It lingers with you long after the book is over.
Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, co-founder of Ace Literary Consulting and Associate Professor at School of Modern Media Studies, UPES University
Joseph is particularly good at evoking … visceral experiences, of being displaced from one’s own context and thrown into another, of meeting other people in other places, and of the life crackling in those fleeting encounters that animates the spirit. She does this in unassuming, clear prose … Joseph is equally capable of lush, gorgeous visions that strike the reader suddenly, arresting, like the sight of ordinary beauty … Her writing illuminates the mundane and mysterious pace of life, the long and slow parts before major transformations that propel characters into greater self-awareness, or awareness of the world.
Shreya Ila Anasuya, Mint Lounge
Anjali Joseph has the gift of writing from the perspective of the outsider. The accounts her protagonists give of their experiences in her novels manage to be wry, detached and honest all at the same time … Keeping in Touch, like Joseph’s other novels, seamlessly switches perspectives of the protagonists, and has the same measured pace.
Antara Raghavan, Open
Keeping in Touch is an ode to ordinary lives of people with extraordinary experiences and legitimate expectations … Keeping in Touch also moves through a series of “lasts” and “finals” till you reach the beginning of the road to self-discovery … The cinematic quality of Joseph’s storytelling is unmistakable. The interplay of crisp scenes makes the story read like a screenplay … embrace both the strange and the familiar realities in life, and never lose touch with either.
Ipshita Mitra, Scroll.in
A novel with a lingering resonance for our times … Keeping in Touch is edgy, funny, and uncompromisingly modern.
Fantastic Fiction
Ganesh Saili, The New Indian Express
A fragile story of reluctant commitments … this is not just a love story but an intricate political saga of contemporary times. The author has interwoven a layered narrative … Anjali Joseph has written an outstanding novel. An excellent read.
Jasmine Sandhu Sandhawalia, The Tribune (India)
Anjali Joseph excels in these middle class stories. It is almost as if it is in the spirit of Jane Austen, to polish the two inches of ivory … Interestingly, this novel is probably a fine example of a new brand of diasporic literature that blends the cultures of the two lands deftly and unapologetically. It is evident in little details such as the use of Assamese words in the course of conversation or to describe dishes … Keeping in Touch is a very old-fashioned love story in a modern setting. It is beautifully told. It is impossible to put down. It lingers with you long after the book is over.
Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, co-founder of Ace Literary Consulting and Associate Professor at School of Modern Media Studies, UPES University
Joseph is particularly good at evoking … visceral experiences, of being displaced from one’s own context and thrown into another, of meeting other people in other places, and of the life crackling in those fleeting encounters that animates the spirit. She does this in unassuming, clear prose … Joseph is equally capable of lush, gorgeous visions that strike the reader suddenly, arresting, like the sight of ordinary beauty … Her writing illuminates the mundane and mysterious pace of life, the long and slow parts before major transformations that propel characters into greater self-awareness, or awareness of the world.
Shreya Ila Anasuya, Mint Lounge
Anjali Joseph has the gift of writing from the perspective of the outsider. The accounts her protagonists give of their experiences in her novels manage to be wry, detached and honest all at the same time … Keeping in Touch, like Joseph’s other novels, seamlessly switches perspectives of the protagonists, and has the same measured pace.
Antara Raghavan, Open
Keeping in Touch is an ode to ordinary lives of people with extraordinary experiences and legitimate expectations … Keeping in Touch also moves through a series of “lasts” and “finals” till you reach the beginning of the road to self-discovery … The cinematic quality of Joseph’s storytelling is unmistakable. The interplay of crisp scenes makes the story read like a screenplay … embrace both the strange and the familiar realities in life, and never lose touch with either.
Ipshita Mitra, Scroll.in
A novel with a lingering resonance for our times … Keeping in Touch is edgy, funny, and uncompromisingly modern.
Fantastic Fiction
Read
October 4, 2021The story stretches out the narrow boundaries of magic realism — you will find yourself more grounded in the matter-of-fact world we live in — where Joseph transmutes the ‘sameness of everydayness’ into the extraordinary. You will discover every shower bringing out its own special rainbow. Keeping in Touch is a very old-fashioned love story in a modern time, where the seduction of a 30-something British Asian man by an Assamese woman assumes epic undertones. This is a story well told. It is hard to put the book down after you have read the first few pages. The aftertaste lingers long after the book is done and dusted.
Ganesh Saili, The New Indian Express
A fragile story of reluctant commitments … this is not just a love story but an intricate political saga of contemporary times. The author has interwoven a layered narrative … Anjali Joseph has written an outstanding novel. An excellent read.
Jasmine Sandhu Sandhawalia, The Tribune (India)
Anjali Joseph excels in these middle class stories. It is almost as if it is in the spirit of Jane Austen, to polish the two inches of ivory … Interestingly, this novel is probably a fine example of a new brand of diasporic literature that blends the cultures of the two lands deftly and unapologetically. It is evident in little details such as the use of Assamese words in the course of conversation or to describe dishes … Keeping in Touch is a very old-fashioned love story in a modern setting. It is beautifully told. It is impossible to put down. It lingers with you long after the book is over.
Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, co-founder of Ace Literary Consulting and Associate Professor at School of Modern Media Studies, UPES University
Joseph is particularly good at evoking … visceral experiences, of being displaced from one’s own context and thrown into another, of meeting other people in other places, and of the life crackling in those fleeting encounters that animates the spirit. She does this in unassuming, clear prose … Joseph is equally capable of lush, gorgeous visions that strike the reader suddenly, arresting, like the sight of ordinary beauty … Her writing illuminates the mundane and mysterious pace of life, the long and slow parts before major transformations that propel characters into greater self-awareness, or awareness of the world.
Shreya Ila Anasuya, Mint Lounge
Anjali Joseph has the gift of writing from the perspective of the outsider. The accounts her protagonists give of their experiences in her novels manage to be wry, detached and honest all at the same time … Keeping in Touch, like Joseph’s other novels, seamlessly switches perspectives of the protagonists, and has the same measured pace.
Antara Raghavan, Open
Keeping in Touch is an ode to ordinary lives of people with extraordinary experiences and legitimate expectations … Keeping in Touch also moves through a series of “lasts” and “finals” till you reach the beginning of the road to self-discovery … The cinematic quality of Joseph’s storytelling is unmistakable. The interplay of crisp scenes makes the story read like a screenplay … embrace both the strange and the familiar realities in life, and never lose touch with either.
Ipshita Mitra, Scroll.in
A novel with a lingering resonance for our times … Keeping in Touch is edgy, funny, and uncompromisingly modern.
Fantastic Fiction
Ganesh Saili, The New Indian Express
A fragile story of reluctant commitments … this is not just a love story but an intricate political saga of contemporary times. The author has interwoven a layered narrative … Anjali Joseph has written an outstanding novel. An excellent read.
Jasmine Sandhu Sandhawalia, The Tribune (India)
Anjali Joseph excels in these middle class stories. It is almost as if it is in the spirit of Jane Austen, to polish the two inches of ivory … Interestingly, this novel is probably a fine example of a new brand of diasporic literature that blends the cultures of the two lands deftly and unapologetically. It is evident in little details such as the use of Assamese words in the course of conversation or to describe dishes … Keeping in Touch is a very old-fashioned love story in a modern setting. It is beautifully told. It is impossible to put down. It lingers with you long after the book is over.
Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, co-founder of Ace Literary Consulting and Associate Professor at School of Modern Media Studies, UPES University
Joseph is particularly good at evoking … visceral experiences, of being displaced from one’s own context and thrown into another, of meeting other people in other places, and of the life crackling in those fleeting encounters that animates the spirit. She does this in unassuming, clear prose … Joseph is equally capable of lush, gorgeous visions that strike the reader suddenly, arresting, like the sight of ordinary beauty … Her writing illuminates the mundane and mysterious pace of life, the long and slow parts before major transformations that propel characters into greater self-awareness, or awareness of the world.
Shreya Ila Anasuya, Mint Lounge
Anjali Joseph has the gift of writing from the perspective of the outsider. The accounts her protagonists give of their experiences in her novels manage to be wry, detached and honest all at the same time … Keeping in Touch, like Joseph’s other novels, seamlessly switches perspectives of the protagonists, and has the same measured pace.
Antara Raghavan, Open
Keeping in Touch is an ode to ordinary lives of people with extraordinary experiences and legitimate expectations … Keeping in Touch also moves through a series of “lasts” and “finals” till you reach the beginning of the road to self-discovery … The cinematic quality of Joseph’s storytelling is unmistakable. The interplay of crisp scenes makes the story read like a screenplay … embrace both the strange and the familiar realities in life, and never lose touch with either.
Ipshita Mitra, Scroll.in
A novel with a lingering resonance for our times … Keeping in Touch is edgy, funny, and uncompromisingly modern.
Fantastic Fiction
January 14, 2022
I was clearly misled by the blurb. This is both a good and bad thing. I got into this book expecting it to be a romance alternating between London and Assam. Also expected it to be a light-hearted casual read. On some level, both of these statements are true. However, this is not a traditional love story with the cliched tropes of strangers falling in insta love.
Honestly, I had so many mixed feelings while reading this story. I liked the beginning, it then seemed to digress into inconsequential side plots. I liked it again when the characters started sharing a bit more about themselves. The plot again meandered into trivial events here and there. I initially hated both protagonists because they came off super superficial. They seemed to have no focus, the plot seemed to lack direction. I read this over a few days and each day basically, I changed my mind about how I felt about the story and the writing.
In the end, I will give it 3 stars - I liked it. The characters (if intended so) accurately represent the in-betweenness of our generation. The in-between jobs, in-between relationships, in-between state of minds... The writing complemented this lifestyle. It was extremely sparing to the point of seeming disjointed and choppy. One thing's for certain - this is not a casual love story. It made me uncomfortable and unsettled and judge and reflect on what our lives have now become.
Would I recommend this? Well, it's not your usual fiction. It can go both ways - either you'll love it or be discomfited by its honesty.
Honestly, I had so many mixed feelings while reading this story. I liked the beginning, it then seemed to digress into inconsequential side plots. I liked it again when the characters started sharing a bit more about themselves. The plot again meandered into trivial events here and there. I initially hated both protagonists because they came off super superficial. They seemed to have no focus, the plot seemed to lack direction. I read this over a few days and each day basically, I changed my mind about how I felt about the story and the writing.
In the end, I will give it 3 stars - I liked it. The characters (if intended so) accurately represent the in-betweenness of our generation. The in-between jobs, in-between relationships, in-between state of minds... The writing complemented this lifestyle. It was extremely sparing to the point of seeming disjointed and choppy. One thing's for certain - this is not a casual love story. It made me uncomfortable and unsettled and judge and reflect on what our lives have now become.
Would I recommend this? Well, it's not your usual fiction. It can go both ways - either you'll love it or be discomfited by its honesty.
July 27, 2022
3.5⭐️
This is a real slow burn love story. Almost painful in its will they/ won’t they approach. Ved and Ketecki meet by chance at Heathrow. They both have Indian heritage but live very different lives in different parts of the world.
Ved works in investment and has a fancy flat in London.
Ketecki, is an art curator and spends a lot of time travelling, perhaps to escape her past and perhaps because she is a commintment phobe.
The pair spend a night together, then go their separate ways, but by ‘Keeping in Touch’ will they eventually find what they need in each other.
For me this was less a romance and more an exploration of the human condition and our need to be our own person. I found both characters infuriating at times but also relatable. My favourite character was Joy Mama, Ketecki’s wise uncle, who seems to be the expert on all things Assamese.
My favourite thing about this novel though was the vivid descriptions of Assam, it’s history, people and culture. I felt the writer really brought this to life. In some ways it almost touched on magical realism with the light (including the new lightbulb) having a real effect on things in the world.
Overall, a great read for those who enjoy character driven reads.
This is a real slow burn love story. Almost painful in its will they/ won’t they approach. Ved and Ketecki meet by chance at Heathrow. They both have Indian heritage but live very different lives in different parts of the world.
Ved works in investment and has a fancy flat in London.
Ketecki, is an art curator and spends a lot of time travelling, perhaps to escape her past and perhaps because she is a commintment phobe.
The pair spend a night together, then go their separate ways, but by ‘Keeping in Touch’ will they eventually find what they need in each other.
For me this was less a romance and more an exploration of the human condition and our need to be our own person. I found both characters infuriating at times but also relatable. My favourite character was Joy Mama, Ketecki’s wise uncle, who seems to be the expert on all things Assamese.
My favourite thing about this novel though was the vivid descriptions of Assam, it’s history, people and culture. I felt the writer really brought this to life. In some ways it almost touched on magical realism with the light (including the new lightbulb) having a real effect on things in the world.
Overall, a great read for those who enjoy character driven reads.
October 16, 2022
The story takes us through the two protagonists journeys in different settings and in different places, as they cross each other’s path a few times , looking for stability in a relationship which doesn’t exist..
The author’s description of life is Assam is brilliant, almost transports us to a world never seen..
However, I felt many parts of the story didn’t come together the way they should have. Like the elaborate sequences about the light bulb company, the fire in it and so on. Also, the part where Tuku suddenly disappears and the reader doesn’t come to know till the end why he took that step…
The end of the book is also sudden and the reader is left wanting as to what really happens to the characters . Also the end about some tantra was beyond my comprehension ..
The author’s description of life is Assam is brilliant, almost transports us to a world never seen..
However, I felt many parts of the story didn’t come together the way they should have. Like the elaborate sequences about the light bulb company, the fire in it and so on. Also, the part where Tuku suddenly disappears and the reader doesn’t come to know till the end why he took that step…
The end of the book is also sudden and the reader is left wanting as to what really happens to the characters . Also the end about some tantra was beyond my comprehension ..
August 4, 2022
A modern romance which takes the reader from London to India . I was really interested in the history around Assam , it made for interesting reading . The author has a relaxed writing style making this book an easy read
November 3, 2023
Il libro parla di una relazione che fa fatica a crescere a causa (forse) dell'incapacità di lasciarsi andare dei protagonisti. Questo libro fa un po' fatica a decollare , ho apprezzato però alcune descrizioni di Assam .
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 7, 2026
Keeping in Touch is a beautiful, honest love story between two people afraid to love. But the real heart of the book is Assam — its rivers, forests, people and culture, written with a detail and warmth that brought tears to my eyes.
May 19, 2024
I found the first half of the book somewhat slow and the prose a little stilted but enjoyed the second half.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 17 reviews