eBook and paperback available everywhere books are sold. Check your country’s Amazon site for paperbacks outside the US and Canada. Limited free copies are available at BGSQD. Just ask at checkout.
Cover design by Selden at Selfor Media
Upcoming Events, updated December 9, 2024
- Saturday, January 25, 2025, 2 -4 PM ET | Virtual panel – with Queer Women of Color (QWOC) Books. Register for free here.
- Tuesday, January 28, 2025, 8 – 9 PM ET | Virtual – with Out in Tech. Get your free ticket here.
- March 6, 2025 | Portland – In conversation with Amy Sample Ward, author of The Tech that Comes Next. At Broadway Books. Event link coming in early 2025.
- Friday, March 21, 2025, 7 – 9 PM ET | In-person @ The Ripped Bodice Brooklyn, 215 5th Ave. | With authors JD Glass and Erica Friedman. Get tickets here.
(Note this event was originally scheduled for December 10, 2024)
- March 27, 2025 | What It Meant to Survive is the March 2025 pick for KhushDC! Mala will join the second half of the virtual discussion for an author Q&A. Email board.khushdc [at] gmail [dot] com to join the book club.
Check back throughout 2024 for more events in more locations! See past events.
Synopsis
Featuring strong queer female protagonists who must navigate class, race, religion, language, and nationality, Mala Kumar’s What It Meant to Survive is a poignant and heartbreaking commentary on modern-day America and Nigeria.
Ramya and Juliet begin to uplift each other and heal the moment they match on Tinder. For nearly a decade, Ramya, an American of Indian origin from Virginia, has grappled with her survivor’s guilt from a devastating mass shooting that occurred during her last year of university. Halfway around the world in Nigeria, Juliet has survived family tragedies, economic downturns, and an oppressive patriarchy. With a one-chance swipe on their phones in a country foreign to them both, the two women begin a remarkable romantic relationship that most fairy tales wouldn’t dare to depict.
But can they hold onto each other?
As their lives intertwine, Ramya suffers acute memory loss so pronounced that she sometimes forgets where she is, who she’s with, and even who she is. Periodically, Juliet experiences time freezes that throws her out of sync with everyone around her. Ultimately, the two women choose to begin a new life together in New York City, where their love will be acknowledged and respected. But for Juliet to make it through the American immigration process, the two women must get to the root causes of these memory loss and time-lapse episodes by coming to terms with their pasts.
Written by a singularly talented, wildly imaginative novelist, What It Meant to Survive is a powerful and bracing work of fiction inspired by the true event, the Virginia Tech Massacre, and the author’s real experience navigating its long-term social and emotional impacts.
Praise for What It Meant to Survive
“Mala Kumar’s What It Meant to Survive is a riveting, globe-trotting, fast-paced, page-turner of a novel. Part love story, part psychological thriller, the book asks big questions about how we claim our power and find ways to not just survive but thrive in a world that so often feels like it wants to destroy us. What It Meant to Survive will fill your heart, break it, put it back together, and fill it again.”
– Rahul Mehta, author of Quarantine and Feeding the Ghosts
“Captivating and fantastical, What It Meant to Survive follows the journey of Ramya and Juliet, two women from vastly different backgrounds, as they fall in love and navigate the social and political complexities of modern-day America and Nigeria. Mala Kumar deftly explores the depths of resilience and the power of human connection. What It Meant to Survive is unlike any love story I’ve ever read.”
– Nithya Elsa Ramesh, author of the anthology, I Hope You Still Love Me
Read more reviews or leave your own on
Mala held her UK book launch event with host Sharan Dhaliwal of Burnt Roti at The Common Press in London on Thursday, November 28, 2024. She read from two chapters and had a lively conversation with an engaged audience, including how American gun violence relates to a British audience. Thanks to those who attended!
Event hosted by Microsoft GLEAM at Henrietta Hudson’s in NYC on Thursday, October 10, 2024 for National Coming Out Day. Microsoft graciously provided copies of What It Meant to Survive to all guests.
Mala speaking on the panel, “Trauma Recovery across Genre” at the Sinners and Saints Literary Festival (SASFest). Mala also read from What it Meant to Survive for the first time at SASFest. The event was held in March 2024 in New Orleans. Click here to read more.
Mala did a short reading and spoke to the Meta Women in AI group in November 2024. The conversation focused on both What It Meant to Survive and the societal effects of tech / AI.
In September 2023, Mala was a panelist in the Aangan Lit Fest’s “Queer Voices” panel in NYC. She read the official What it Meant to Survive synopsis (above) for the first time, and answered questions about the publishing industry, queer South Asian writing, AI and more.
In September 2023, Mala was on a virtual panel hosted by the Golden Crown Literary Society about people of color authors who write sapphic literature. View the recording to the left / above.
Mala was on a panel as part of Nasdaq’s LGBTQ Leader’s Conference in June 2023. She spoke about South Asian LGBTQ intersectional experiences, read from The Paths of Marriage, and spoke about What it Meant to Survive.
Announcing What it Meant to Survive at a The Paths of Marriage book event in London at The Common Press bookstore in June 2023.
Mala signing the contract with Bywater in June 2023 while on holiday in Puerto Rico!
Articles and Media
Lauren Moreno of the The Bay Area Reporter wrote up a summary of What It Meant to Survive in December 2024, calling the novel a “must-read for people overcoming post-traumatic stress and survivor’s guilt.” Read the article here.
Mala wrote an article about queerness and immigration for the British LGBTQ publication, QX, in anticipation of the London book launch event in November 2024.
Mala wrote an Op-Ed about what it was like to be queer and mostly closeted in the aftermath of The Virginia Tech Massacre. Read the article here.
Announcement from Bywater Books, the publisher of What it Meant to Survive. Click here to read.
HocTok, a creative arts publication based in Brooklyn, interviewed Mala about her motivation to write What it Meant to Survive. Click here to read the interview.