New Delhi, June 28 -- Shreyas Rajagopal, who published his first novel Saltwater (2014) under the moniker of Shrey, has emerged from a decade-long hibernation with his new book, Gunboy. And it's been worth the wait.

Set in Rannwara, the badlands of Maharashtra, it is as close to The Gangs of Wasseypur as you will get on the page. Unfolding in the same breathtaking pace as Anurag Kashyap's 2012 duology, Gunboy is a feat of storytelling-its 400-odd pages fly by before you know it-and told with a flair that standard-fare action thrillers can rarely muster. As a hardened literary fiction reader, I didn't expect the novel to engross me as much as it did, especially with all the casual and calculated violence, blood and gore, splattered all ov...