If I had to choose between letting down A friend or my country, god, give Me the strength to betray my nation. ‘I was born in a mentally retarded country.’ Thus begins this provocative, stylish, and racy literary rant against India by a twenty-four-year-old awaiting capital punishment; hoisting so huge a historic and political canvas to paint upon—opening at the Emergency that almost murdered Democracy and culminating in the Godhra riots, which almost destroyed secularism—a canvas so grand, it will leave you staggered . . . . . . and set the tone for a modern story of an ancient Mad Nation! Longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, Autobiography of a Mad Nation is written on an epic scale—where history, personal friendships, love for a nation and belief in its values, sense of great literature, fight against censorship, passion for ideas, and a zeal for unforgettable characters and dialogue fuse—to leave a mesmerizing impact on the minds of readers who discerningly distinguish between great, and all else.