The Passenger Seat

Vijay Khurana

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English

Ultimo Press
01 April 2025

Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Approaching the wrong person with open hands can be fatal.

Seeking escape from their small-town existence, two teenagers impulsively drive north, with no particular place to go and no particular sense of who is at the wheel.

Adam and Teddy hope to leave boyhood behind, but as the journey progresses their friendship becomes a struggle to prove themselves. When Adam harasses a young couple they meet on the highway it lands them in trouble they cannot run from.

In taut and stylish prose, The Passenger Seat examines how men learn and perform masculinity. Rejecting easy answers, it keeps our eyes trained on the vanishing point where vulnerability edges into violence, alienation into aggression.

PRAISE FOR THE PASSENGER SEAT

‘What begins as a rite of passage turns into surreal violence. Khurana’s prose flows with hypnotic force, concealing laconic undercurrents of menace and intrigue … Cinematic and subtle, fuelling both a slow burn and a slow turn, this is a deeply riveting and satisfying novel.’ – Brian Castro, author of Chinese Postman

‘Vijay Khurana’s profound and propulsive The Passenger Seat is a thrilling, terrifying, devastating ride. This perfectly pitched tale of masculinity gone wrong exposes the ways that intimacy can so quickly veer into violence – yet it evades easy moral pronouncements at every turn. Khurana is a brilliant stylist who drives straight toward the heart. I would follow him down any road.’ – Elvia Wilk, author of Death by Landscape

‘As honest as it is harrowing, The Passenger Seat examines the psychology of two people in the process of making decisive mistakes, and never looks away. An exploration of how one thing leading to another soon gathers weight.’ – Max Easton, author of Paradise Estate

‘This book is simply great – an elegant novel written with disturbing emotional intensity and a sly, judicious sense of contemporary detail.’ – Lauren Oyler, author of Fake Accounts

‘a road novel odyssey into the dark heart of a contemporary crisis too long unexamined’ – Luke Carman, author of An Elegant Young Man

‘Vijay Khurana writes incredibly succinct and vigorous prose. His stories, always full of insight and depth, shine a light on the most nuanced and ambivalent corners of our lives.’ – Yan Ge, author of Elsewhere

By: Vijay Khurana
Imprint: Ultimo Press
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
Weight: 350g
ISBN: 9781761153792
ISBN 10: 176115379X
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 01 April 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Vijay Khurana is a writer and translator from German. The Passenger Seat, his debut novel, was shortlisted for the 2022 Fitzcarraldo Editions/New Directions/Giramondo Novel Prize, while his short fiction has been recognised by numerous prizes and published in The Guardian, The Griffith Review, and NOON, among others. He has also been a presenter on Australian radio station triple j, and in 2014 he published a children’s chapter book, Regal Beagle.

Reviews for The Passenger Seat

‘Vijay Khurana’s profound and propulsive The Passenger Seat is a thrilling, terrifying, devastating ride. This perfectly pitched tale of masculinity gone wrong exposes the ways that intimacy can so quickly veer into violence – yet it evades easy moral pronouncements at every turn. Khurana is a brilliant stylist who drives straight toward the heart. I would follow him down any road.’ * Elvia Wilk, author of Death by Landscape *