Kanan Gill is a stand-up comedian, actor, writer of TV specials and movies, and is unquestionably a talented entertainer. He was the winner of the Punch Line Bangalore Competition, among other things, which means he probably always has a couple of zingers in his pocket.

His debut novel, “Acts of God,” is highly ambitious, to mixed results. Let’s start irregularly with a revelatory quote from this singular book’s afterword:

“A book is best understood as a universe. It begins as a singularity, a mystery on a shelf: fundamental, unknown, unhappened. Once opened, the universe of the book bursts into being a primordial explosion of information flung in every direction it creates, information that expands and cools and spins, information that collides, attracts, annihilates, contradicts, and p

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