The American Library Association 2006 STONEWALL AWARD
Lambda literary award for 2005
TEN BEST BOOKS OF FICTION 2005: Boston Phoenix
One of India's 25 Young Achievers: India Today Feb 2007
NYC's HOT 25! 1 of 25 New Yorkers who will make their mark in 2005 --
TIME OUT, January 20-26, 2005, Issue No. 486
1 of India's 12 remarkable women--Femina magazine June 2005
2005: The Next BIG Things"--Dec.26, 2004, The Hindustan Times.
Fun Fearless Female--Cosmpolitan India May 2003
NYFA Fiction Fellowship 2000
Short-listed for Le Prix Médicis Roman Etranger & Le Prix Bel Ami in France.























Praise for Babyji (French & Portuguese Editions)

"Abha Dawesar, contre tous les tabous" LE MONDE, 22 Mars 2007.

"Subversif et détonant." Marie France Avril 2007

“Abha Dawesar a réussi une véritable comédie humaine made in India, foisonnante, drôle, intelligente et sensible. Elle n’hesite pas à écrire cru, non pour provoquer gratuitement, mais parce que c’est ainsi ses personnages. Ce faisant, elle brise l’un des derniers tabous de la société indienne, où ces "choses-là" peuvent se faire à la rigueur, dans la privacy, mais certainement pas se dire, et encore moins s’écrire. Cette écrivaine-là n’a pas froid aux yeux, elle ira loin.” Livres Hebdo N 680, 9 mars 2007

“Avec beaucoup de finesse et d'impudeur, Dawesar brosse le portrait d'une Lady Chatterley indienne qui accède à la connaissance de soi par l'érotisme. Et on assiste, ébloui, à la métamorphose de la chrysalide en papillon, sur fond d'une société empêtrée dans ses codes.” Le Figaro Littéraire 8 mars 2007

"...un écheveau complexe et parfaitement maîtrisé." Le Magazine Littéraire N 462, mars 2007

"A 33 ans, elle est l'auteur indien qui dérange." La Page, mars 2007

"Mais c'est toujours la finesse des descriptions intimes et la force des sentiments qui marque, à la lecture d'un récit aussi exotique et -tout à la fois- universel que celui-ci." Transfuge N 15, mars-avril 2007

"Na era pós-Rushdie, elas é que contam" PUBLICO, Marçao 2007.
                                   go back to top of page

Praise for That Summer in Paris

Starred review in Publishers Weekly March 6, 2006

"The Philip Roth of Indian Fiction?" Article in Publishers Weekly April 10, 2006

News in Indian Express April 7, 2006

"a contemplative, sensual, and literary mélange...a provocative tale of love and the literature it inspires" Booklist, April 15, 2006

"elegant and contemplative "--Bharati Mukherjee in Bookforum, Summer 2006

"plenty of the sharp intellectual back-and-forth that drives both this unlikely romance and Dawesar's quirky novel."--Entertainment Weekly

"Dawesar’s melodic writing style and knack for provocative prose rarely disappoints and keeps the pages turning."--Edge Boston June 23, 2006

"Literary masterpiece"--The Pioneer July 8, 2006

"Dawesar's erotic prose jumps off the page like a dancer in flight."--Chicago Sun-Times July 9, 2006

"novel of rare grace"--India Today August 21, 2006

"...one of the most insightful writers in the business."---The Ottawa Citizen July 9, 2006

"pretty much what the doctor ordered"--Santa Cruz Sentinel July 23, 2006

"allows us the luxury of thinking through some of our own dilemmas around carnality and tenderness"--Time Out, Mumbai July 28, 2006

"an extremely insightful novel"--rediff.com
                      go back to top of page

Praise for Babyji

"an impressive balance between moral inquiry and
decadent pleasure” --Publishers Weekly

On NY Post's January 30, 2005 Required Reading

"an excellent novel"--The Daily Camera

San Francisco Chronicle:
"Dawesar does an excellent job of capturing Anamika's rapid
swings from puffed-up maturity to deflated adolescence and back again."

The Washington Post:
"What you'll love: Fervid scenes of sexual discovery and the fevered
vagaries of Anamika's adolescent mind shimmer in unabashed detail."

Time Out New York:
"a sweet and exciting gust of fresh air."

"Babyji [has]-- wit and irony, passion and intelligence, above all the
conscious joy of style."
--"India's place in world literature," The Providence Journal

"so sharp it hurts and so funny you can't put it down."
--East Bay Express

"Dawesar is a superb writer."--QC Knight News

"Babyji is one of the most erotic books I have ever read."
--BUST

"a refreshing new voice amongst South Asian writers."
--Ego Magazine

"The way urban Americans divined existential meaning from the suburbs
of American Beauty, this novel provides a window into the dark yet
illuminating corners of contemporary suburban India."
--Out Traveler

"The charm of this fun, fresh novel is in the unsaid, the creeping uncertainties that have less to do with Heisenberg than with the heart."—-Boston Phoenix

"A lot of pleasure in meeting this brash, unexpected girl in this rough, unknown city."--The Seattle Times

"an intelligent, thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable read."
--India Currents

Newsweek International:
"Anamika's amorous indiscretions provide a colorful backdrop
to her questions about morality, gender roles and social rank
in modern India, resulting in a tantalizing and sophisticated
coming-of-age story."

"Ultimately, in Dawesar's work, sexual freedom becomes a metaphor
for other kinds of freedom: emotional, social, economic."
--PLANET°

3 of 3 stars from --Internazionale, Italy

"never flinching from radical questions about morality, gender roles
and social rank in modern India." --The Telegraph, Calcultta

"Highly recommended. It might even make us less homophobic as
a society."--Mid-Day, Mumbai

"a very pointed investigation of morality and perhaps a call to
refresh the "rule book". --India Today

So finally Babyji is a morality tale. A morality that is far more contemporary. --The Deccan Herald
                      go back to top of page












































Praise for Miniplanner (The Three of Us)

"GUTSY GIRL"
Cosmopolitan India's May 2003 Fun, Fearless, Female

“a coming-of-age of Indian diaspora writers”
Outlook, February 17, 2003

"... is in complete control of her craft...and has a seamless understanding of the traps and confusions of gender identity."
Hindustan Times, Dec. 26, 2004

“startling in its analysis of a human situation…captures the essence of the human element shorn of all pretension and superficialities" The Deccan Herald, Bangalore, February 23, 2003

“Quite unlike anything we’ve read from an Indian author in a long time"
The New Indian Express, Bangalore

"Abha Dawesar takes you by surprise"
New Indian Express, March 23, 2003

"Crisp, clear style" The Hindu, Hyderabad

"breezy sexual tour de force" The Hindustan Times, July 20, 2003

"ably demonstrates the performativity of gender and constructivism of sexuality as enunciated by Judith Butler in her two seminal works." Dr. Subhash Chandra, ISCS, November 2003.

In Kannada thatskannada.com
                      go back to top of page

"an adventurous read"
Instinct Magazine,USA

"It's an expressive, impressive debut"
Planet Out
                      go back to top of page

In Farsi Fekr e Rooz