SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018, LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2018, SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2018, Guardian's Best Books of 2017 , Daily Telegraph's Best Books of 2017 , Observer Best Books of 2017 , Financial Times Best Books of 2017. "Meena Kandasamy's vivid, sharp and precise writing makes a triumph of When I Hit You"- Guardian. Seduced by politics, poetry and an enduring dream of building a better world together, the unnamed narrator falls in love with a university professor. Moving with him to a rain-washed coastal town, she swiftly learns that what for her is a bond of love is for him a contract of ownership. As he sets about reducing her to his idealised version of an obedient wife, bullying her and devouring her ambition of being a writer in the process, she attempts to push back - a resistance he resolves to break with violence and rape.