India, July 19 -- Santanu Bhattacharya's novel Deviants tells an unusual story of three generations of gay men from the same family - Vivaan, his maternal uncle who is introduced to the reader as Mambro, and Mambro's maternal uncle, Sukumar. Their journeys are remarkably different but the connecting thread is a shared quest for love. Bhattacharya's attempt at "tracing a delicate bloodline of forbidden love across three generations, three renegade young men fifty years apart" is praiseworthy for its conceptual clarity and fine execution. These words are uttered by Mambro, who is a bridge between the past and future. He articulates an affirming vision of what kinship can look like when it is not framed through a patriarchal lens that assesses a man's worth by his ability to produce heirs. The author has developed a distinct personality and voice for each of his characters. Vivaan is a teenager, about to enter adulthood. He uses apps to meet prospective sexual partners. Sukumar is in a long-term relationship with a man but they keep it secret because their society of this era would never accept their relationship. He eventually marries a woman and they are miserable together. When he loses the man he is involved with, he starts cruising for sex in public places. He is ashamed of who he is and has no role models or mentors. Given how the novel unfolds, it is tempting to conclude that things have transformed drastically for gay men in India over the last few generations. Vivaan does not have to pretend to be heterosexual to find acceptance. In contrast, Sukumar had to suppress his desires, live in the closet, and "protect his family's honour". While the reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in 2018 has reduced the stigma around homosexuality, it is also true that many gay men in India continue to marry women, amid pressure from their families or in a bid to hold on to the privileges patriarchy offers heterosexual men. Given this, it is advisable to enjoy this book as a work of fiction and not as a sociological study of changing attitudes towards gay men in India. Mambro is presented as a character who lies between the extremes that Vivaan and Sukumar denote. Unlike Sukumar, Mambro has access to queer representation in literature and cinema. He is not as helpless as Sukumar but not as liberated as Vivaan either. One of the book's most beautifully written parts is the description of the time 30-year-old Sukumar sees his six-month-old nephew for the first time, in the spring of 1982. The baby is brought by Sukumar's sister for the annaprasan ritual. The author writes, "It was the maternal uncle's right to feed a child their first grain of rice, granting him the place of custodian. This was the first time Sukumar had been given so much respect, offered a role in the life of the next generation." This child grows up to be Vivaan's uncle, Mambro. Later in the novel, it is quite apparent that Sukumar is aware of what he has in common with his nephew. His impulse is to protect the child, but he is unable to have an open conversation about this with him. What he does offer is a heart full of blessings and small gestures of affection. On the other hand, Mambro's relationship with Vivaan is fairly informal. They talk about sex, relationships, testing for HIV, queer history. Through this novel, Bhattacharya emphasises the value of acknowledging queer ancestors whose lives have been erased from family histories. Deviants deserves to be read widely for the author's attempt to tell a story that is both distressing and heartwarming....