Between This World and the Next

“Herat’s prose, raw & clear, also revs & roars. His world is the devil’s world. Licked by beauty, laced with venom. Stay for the madness, Herat says. Captivated, we comply.”— Deepak Unnikrishnan, author of Temporary People

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Winner of the 2022 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing

Praveen Herat's gripping international thriller is a breathtaking exploration of power, identity, unconditional love, & the question of how far we'll go to uncover the truth.

British war photographer Joseph Nightingale, known to his colleagues as Fearless, is haunted by a brutal past & a present that has grown unrecognizable. Besieged by grief over the loss of his partner & unborn child, he travels to Cambodia, where a reunion with an old friend leads him to a young woman named Song. Imprisoned by circumstance, she, too, is longing for a past she can't reconcile & grappling with the disappearance of her twin sister. Soon after their paths cross, Song vanishes, leaving behind only a mysterious videotape, & Fearless finds himself entangled in a web of transnational sex traffickers, corrupt power brokers, & ruthless arms dealers, where nothing & no one are what they seem.

In a place where human life is cheap & violence is just a means to an end, Fearless & Song must go to new lengths to confront their separate demons. Pulse-pounding & poignant, Between this World & the Next balances devastating cruelty with unexpected redemption. In this arresting page-turner, Praveen Herat blurs the boundaries between good & evil, asking us to reexamine complicity & the consequences of looking the other way.

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Praveen Herat was born in London to Sri Lankan parents & educated at Oxford & the University of East Anglia. He lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for several years, a period that marked him profoundly & prompted his research for what would become Between This World & the Next. Since 2010, he resides in Paris.