This Brutal House

As we await the second season of the TV drama Pose, the award-winning author Govinden brings us a timely queer protest novel set in the drag ball community of New York City. Vivid and poetic, the story explores belonging, tolerance and what it means to be a parent in a confused and complex society - Sunday Times

[A] vibrant novel … Acerbic, encompassing, funny and mounting towards the spiritual, Govinden’s book shows the complexity of drag balls and queer life. This is an important, and in places an experimental book, full of spark and wisdom. Its tone is in places elegiac, in others vibrant. Like the best drag acts, This Brutal House leaves its reader full of a powerful, protesting energy - Irish Times

Queer ball culture in New York has been explored recently in the TV show Pose, and in This Brutal House, Niven Govinden offers a different perspective - Stylist

A tale of voguing and protest - Guardian

This Brutal House is the finest novel to date from a brilliantly challenging, fearless and passionate writer - New Internationalist

This Brutal House shines a light on lives marginalised and magnificent

Vivid prose reinventing ideas of motherhood, belonging and taking us into the community of drag balls and protest, both personal and political