The Wrong Way Home: A Novel About Life After Love and Reinvention By Shunali Khullar Shroff

‘A relentless audit of social currency… Nayantara’s unvarnished humanity is a tonic.’ — Indian Express

‘An easy read that isn’t trivial.’ — The Hindu

‘A sharply observed study of ambition and the price it quietly demands.’ — The Telegraph

‘A witty, heartfelt novel about reinvention in the midst of personal crisis.’ — The Garhwal Post

What happens after the marriage ends but the consequences don’t?

On the first anniversary of her divorce, Nayantara—a forty-something PR professional in Mumbai—wakes up to news that her ex-husband has married a much younger social media influencer. The announcement is public, glamorous and impossible to ignore. Suddenly, the life she thought she had rebuilt begins to crack.

By day, she juggles the reputations of a temperamental Bollywood actor, a scandal-prone politician and the city’s wealthy elite. By night, she struggles to manage her own. As she navigates fragile friendships, financial anxieties and the exhausting pressure to appear successful and unbothered, she is forced to confront an uncomfortable question: who is she without the validation of being chosen?

Set between the glittering social circuits of Mumbai and the quieter pull of Landour, and shadowed by two very different men—one charismatic and flamboyant, from the rarefied world she longs to belong to; the other grounded, unshowy and quietly principled—The Wrong Way Home is a sharp, emotionally layered novel about ego, ambition and the complicated art of reinventing yourself in midlife.

Witty, socially observant and deeply honest, it explores reputation, visibility and the slow, imperfect courage of building a life on your own terms.