Nearly a decade after The Association of Small Bombs established him as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary Indian fiction, Karan Mahajan returns with a novel that appears determined to think on a much larger canvas.
The Complex is already entering literary conversations as one of the significant Indian releases of 2026.
At its heart lies the Chopra family, descendants of a political patriarch whose legacy hangs over generations living together in a Delhi housing complex. As India moves through decades of social and political upheaval, the family fractures under ambition, desire, migration and ideology.
The novel moves between Delhi and America while tracing changing political currents, including nationalism, social shifts and the tension between private lives and public histories.
Mahajan has explored the relationship between individuals and larger social forces before.
In The Association of Small Bombs, he examined lives altered by a terrorist attack. In The Complex, the lens widens into family history and nation building.
The timing feels particularly relevant.
Indian English literature has recently seen renewed interest in large scale family sagas and historical narratives. Readers who embraced A Suitable Boy, The Covenant of Water and The God of Small Things may recognise echoes of that expansive storytelling tradition.
International reviews have already described the novel as an ambitious exploration of inheritance, corruption and political decay.
In an era dominated by short attention spans, The Complex embraces the opposite approach.
It asks readers to settle in, inhabit generations and witness a country changing through one family’s story.
From The Book
Publisher notes and early descriptions position the novel as a sweeping family narrative rooted in the social and political transformation of India.
One review describes it as a family saga unfolding against the backdrop of contemporary Indian history where personal relationships and national change become deeply intertwined.
Book Details
The Complex
Author: Karan Mahajan
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Price : ₹699
