Taty Went West

by Nikhil Singh, Nikhil Singh (Illustrator)

Overview

Taty is a troubled teen running away from home. She quickly finds herself kidnapped by a malicious imp in the dinosaur-infested Outzone. While confronting demons of her own, Taty finds herself in a chaotic world full of evangelizing robot nuns, Buddhist punks, and the ominous Dr. Dali. Nikhil Singh has created a truly unique universe with a bold, petulant heroine one can't help but cheer for. Called “a hallucinogenic post-apocalyptic carnival ride” by Lauren Beukes, Taty Went West is told with bold swagger and otherworldly imagination by one of Africa's most promising new writers. As Billy Kahora, managing editor of Kenya's Kwani Trust, says, “Savvy, ultra-modern, Taty straddles the mediated realities of our own continent and the groundbreaking possibilities of our ongoing universal imaginaries.”

Nikhil Singh is an artist, writer, musician and film-maker. They have fronted the critically acclaimed South African art-rock bands, The Wild Eyes and Hi Spider, as well as released a plethora of solo albums under the moniker, “Witchboy." They have recently written and directed a feature-length film, Trillzone (2014), which was commissioned by the South African National Arts Festival as part of a J.G. Ballard symposium. As an artist, they have illustrated the graphic novels, The Ziggurat and Salem Brownstone, which was longlisted for The Branford Boase Award. Their work has also been featured in Pictures and Words: New Comic Art and Narrative Illustration, Dazed, I-D Online, Creative Review, The Times (UK), Mail & Guardian (UK), The Independent (UK), Rolling Stone (SA), GQ (SA), and featured as part of the COMICA festival exhibition at the ICA.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780998705903
Publisher:	Rosarium Publishing
Publication date:	05/22/2018
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Nikhil Singh is an artist, writer, musician and film-maker. They have fronted the critically acclaimed South African art-rock bands, The Wild Eyes and Hi Spider, as well as released a plethora of solo albums under the moniker, “Witchboy." They have recently written and directed a feature-length film, Trillzone (2014), which was commissioned by the South African National Arts Festival as part of a J.G. Ballard symposium. As an artist, they have illustrated the graphic novels, The Ziggurat and Salem Brownstone, which was longlisted for The Branford Boase Award. Their work has also been featured in Pictures and Words: New Comic Art and Narrative Illustration, Dazed, I-D Online, Creative Review, The Times (UK), Mail & Guardian (UK), The Independent (UK), Rolling Stone (SA), GQ (SA), and featured as part of the COMICA festival exhibition at the ICA.

Editorial Reviews

03/26/2018
In South African author Singh’s transgressive debut, 16-year-old Taty runs away from home and finds more than she bargains for in the lawless jungle of the Outzone: “a forest of dead time, a necrotic wonderland, a province of waking coma where time itself had grown sickly and died.” Lured in by the gun-toting, sharp-clawed Miss Muppet, Taty is bopped on the head and whisked away to the jungle pleasure palace of “imp pimp” Alphonse Guava and his creepy companions, including a Religio Robot named Number Nun who has been hijacked and reprogrammed to serve Guava’s degrading desires; Michelle, a crucified girl who drags her cross behind her; “detachable Siamese” twins who can unjoin at will; and murderous zombie Typhoid Mary. Taty is pressed into a life of servitude as a “ghost girl,” providing psychosexual pleasure to a host of exceedingly strange clients. When Guava’s rival crime lord, Mister Sister, introduces his new pleasure provider, a symbiote that indelibly changes its hosts, this leads to all-out war. Singh has a gift for memorable visuals, but this circus sideshow frequently veers into the absurd, and the characters don’t demand much emotional investment. This is a series of set pieces designed to shock and assault the senses, a phantasmagorical confection that exhausts more than it intrigues. Illus. (May)

Publishers Weekly

A hallucinogenic post-apocalyptic carnival ride—Nikhil Singh has a strange and intriguing mind.” 

—Lauren Beukes, author of Broken Monsters

“Imagine if Lewis Carroll had written five Alice adventures and crammed them into one volume but veering into untried perversions, new drugs, and a beatnik-Gothic vibe. Only out of Africa. William S. Burroughs—only more imaginative.” 

—Geoff Ryman, author of the hypertext novel 253 and its print version, 253: The Print Remix

“A wild, marauding vision on acid. Nikhil Singh creates a world that threatens to leave the confines of the page. Brilliantly compelling.” 

—Irenosen Okojie, author of Speak Gigantular

“Savvy, ultra-modern, Taty straddles the mediated realities of our own continent and the groundbreaking possibilities of our ongoing universal imaginaries.” 

—Billy Kahora, managing editor of Kenya’s Kwani Trust

“Finding words to adequately describe Singh’s writing is not easy, but let’s start with these: radiant, explosive, provocative. These characters and their stories are remarkable. Taty Went West is a dizzying ride of a novel that will leave you breathless and wanting to get right back on again.” 

—Michael Thomas Ford, author of the Shirley Jackson Award finalist, Lambda Literary Award finalist, and Tiptree Award long list title LILY

“Nikhil Singh writes a prose as lush and crocodile-infested as the rainforests in the Outzone.” 

—Mehul Gohil, winner of the 2010 Kwani? “The Kenya I Live In” Short Story Prize

“Taty Went West is not your average adventure story, and Taty is a new kind of adventure heroine.” 

—New African Magazine

“There’s no one else like Nikhil Singh and their intricate illustrated dark visions of the future. Their individuality stains their work in an eerie and pervasive manner making for an incredible multi-layered experience for the reader.” 

—Short Story Day Africa

From the Publisher