Amandeep Singh Sandhu

Born 1973 in Rourkela/India.

Amandeep Singh Sandhu studied English literature at the University of Hyderabad, India.

His fiction Sepia Leaves (2008, Rupa Publications/India) is about a family living under the shadow of schizophrenia from a young boy’s point of view, based in a steel town during the Emergency in India during the 1970s. The novel is now considered a cult classic among students of psychology, mental health partners and caregivers in India. It has also been mentioned at the WHO and has been used as reference text for the national mental health policy. His second fiction Roll of Honour (2012, Rupa Publications) is about the split loyalties of a Sikh boy in a military boarding school in Punjab during the Khalistan movement, based on the events of the year 1984. Roll of Honour was short listed for The Hindu Award 2013. The novel has been translated to critical acclaim into Punjabi, his mother tongue, as Gwah De Fanah Hon To Pehlan.

Besides novels, he writes reviews in The Hindu, Asian Age, The Indian Express, Businessworld, and political commentary on Punjab in Tehelka and Hindustan Times. He has participated in conferences by the Indian Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) and several speaking engagements in the media, and national colleges, universities and literature festivals.

During his residency at Akademie Schloss Solitude he is working on his third novel The Memory Maker that deals with the themes of memorials and migrations.