Arjun Basu

Arjun Basu was born and continues to live in Montreal.  His parents are first generation immigrants from India.  Basu has worked as a magazine editor.  In addition to writing short stories and a novel, Basu regularly updates his blog and posts twitter-length stories that he calls “twisters”.

Fiction (Short stories)

Squishy

Montreal: DC Books, 2009.

Publisher’s Synopsis

Arjun Basu’s fiction collection is a wry and consistently provocative book which exposes the realities beneath social conventions. Squishy asks: Do you still love me? Do you want fries with that? Do I look fat?

Life is full of small moments that define us, tangents that lead us to unexpected places, bad decisions and no decisions with repercussions you couldn’t possibly predict. This is the world of Squishy, where subtle truths emerge from just beneath our seeming contentment and happiness, our layered social obligations. …

Awards and Honours

2009 ReLit Award short fiction category (shortlist)

Fiction

Waiting for the Man

Toronto: ECW Press, 2014.
PS8603 .A797 W33 2014

Publisher’s Synopsis (from its website)

Joe, a 36-year-old advertising copywriter for a slick New York company, feels disillusioned with his life. He starts dreaming of a mysterious man, seeing him on the street, and hearing his voice. Joe decides to listen to the Man and so he waits on his stoop, day and night, for instructions. A local reporter takes notice, and soon Joe has become a story, a media sensation, the centre of a storm. When the Man tells Joe to “go west,” he does, in search of meaning.
Waiting for the Man is a compelling and visceral story about the struggle to find something more in life, told in two interwoven threads — Joe at the beginning of his journey in Manhattan, and at the end of it as he finds new purpose on a ranch in Montana under the endless sky.

Anthology (Short story)

Montreal Noir

Brooklyn, NY: Akashic, 2017.
PS8257 .M6 M66 2017

Basu, Arjun. “Wild Horse.” In Montreal Noir, edited by John McFetridge & Jacques Filippi. Brooklyn: Akashic, 2017, 107-133.