Conversations Regarding the Fatalistic Outlook of the Common Man is a collection of 40 dialogues that melds the classical philosophical tradition of Plato and Socrates with the anarchic freedom of a mid-1990s chat room, and tops it all off with a dash of Senthil-Goundamani comedy. Not really, but anyway. In this book Kuzhali Manickavel interviews children on the subject of ghosts, shoe racks, and gender-neutral pronouns. She speaks to adults about Hindi imposition, hipster racism, and iskisk deospray. She chats with Niira Radia about banana cabinets. She pesters anyone who will listen about Bollywood movie tropes and babies raining from the sky. Puzzles are posed, hypocrisies exposed, awesome bargaining strategies disclosed. Come listen.

Kuzhali Manickavel is the author of INSECTS ARE JUST LIKE YOU AND ME EXCEPT SOME OF THEM HAVE WINGS, a collection of short stories published by Blaft Publications in 2008. Her work can also be found in Best American Fantasy 3, Subtropics, AGNI Online, anderbo, DIAGRAM and elsewhere. She lives in a small temple town on the coast of South India and blogs at http://thirdworldghettovampire.blogspot.com/.