February fiction: Five novels and a short story collection you can read in the year’s shortest month

The Comeback, Annie Zaidi

Riding high on the success of his first major film, actor John K lets his ego get the better of him and says too much in a fateful interview. The fallout shatters the life of his college friend, Asghar Abbasi. Disgraced, unemployed, his marriage in jeopardy, Asghar’s stable middle-class life is thrust into crisis. Broken but unbowed, Asghar retreats to his hometown, Baansa, where he rediscovers his true calling – the stage.
Devastated by the betrayal, he is determined to cut John out of his life; John, while remorseful, is equally determined to claw his way back in. As Asghar’s grassroots small-town theatre takes off, John’s star begins to dim, leaving him stuck in a career that pays the bills but is artistically stultifying. On the outside and desperate to be part of Asghar’s theatre comeback, John is forced to discover the limits of his self-centredness and confront his ego, the shallow allure of fame, and the false hierarchies of the arts.

Deviants: The Queer Family Chronicles, Santanu Bhattacharya

Vivaan, a teenager in India’s silicon plateau, has discovered love on his smartphone. Intoxicating, boundary-breaking love. His parents know he is gay, and their support is something Vivaan can count on, but they don’t know...

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