On 17 August 1947, the kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor declares itself a free nation, refusing to join India. In the years that follow, it becomes a republic of coups, betrayals and revolutions – chronicled by a shadowy informant known as the CID.

Through his eyes, S. Hareesh reimagines Kerala’s history as an alternate world where the lines between fact and fiction, faith and power, sanity and madness blur beyond recognition. At once speculative history and sly metafiction, August 17 explores how nations are built – and undone – by the stories they choose to believe.

Brilliant, subversive and darkly funny, this is a novel of astonishing scope and imagination. Rendered in Jayasree Kalathil’s masterful translation, August 17 confirms Hareesh winner of the JCB Prize for Moustache – as one of the most daring and original voices in contemporary Indian fiction.