One Night Only

Rubani’s first long-term relationship with a man has just come undone. Her friends decide that the solution to her problems is to have her first one-night stand. And her friends – Natasha, Saira and Faiza – revive an old, abandoned plan to take a trip to Goa. Set over the course of a nine-day holiday, the novel explores how four thirty- something millennial women navigate the demands of their careers and the challenges of finding intimacy. In a hedonistic blur of beaches and parties, the girls karaoke, drink and dance even as they nurse old wounds, examine past choices, kindle new romances and discover startling truths about each other—and themselves. Each of these girls must contend with a fair bit of drama in their lives, whether it’s Natasha’s open marriage, Saira’s unwillingness to ‘settle down’ or even the presence of Faiza’s handsome ex in Goa. One Night Only, India’s first popular novel with a bisexual protagonist and devoid of the more ubiquitous queer themes, perfectly captures the complex dynamics of female friendship in all its turbulence and splendour in this modern and witty narrative.