Ankur Thakkar’s Blow Yourself Up follows Arjun and Payal, two high school sweethearts whose lives diverge as the internet transforms around them. While Payal rises through New York’s influencer economy, Arjun finds himself moderating the darkest corners of the same social media platform. Spanning eight years, the novel explores creative ambition, identity, love, and what we sacrifice in the endless pursuit of being seen.
Thakkar is a writer and multimedia artist whose stories have appeared in Guernica, PANK, and TriQuarterly. A 2025 Sewanee Writers’ Conference Scholar, he has also exhibited artwork at the Palais de Tokyo and La Friche la Belle de Mai.
For My Reading Life, Thakkar spoke with Debutiful about discovering The Mahabharata as a child, the novel that inspired him to begin writing Blow Yourself Up, and the diasporic writers who helped shape his work.
What was the first book you were obsessed with as a child?
The very first was The Mahabharata, the Indian epic. I first encountered the story as a graphic novel, then as a television series, and have read almost every adaptation there is, though no one book can capture it all. I’d love to try adapting it someday.
What book helped you through puberty?
I remember reading Hamlet in 6th grade with a wonderful teacher who explained each of the passages to us. Later that year she brought in a playwright who showed us how The Lion King was the same story, which blew my mind. Separately I was into Saved by the Bell and had a few of the screen-to-book editions that I read and read until my mother threw them out.
What book do you wish 16-year-old you had read?
I got really into Bret Easton Ellis in college but would have benefited from reading The Rules of Attraction in high school. I probably would’ve applied to liberal arts schools instead of computer science programs, though our mistakes make us who we are.
If you were to teach a class on Damn Good Writing, what books would make the syllabus?
For a masterclass on voice, structure, and formal invention, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Others are Bluets by Maggie Nelson and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. A more recent novel would be The Coin, by Yasmin Zaher, who is a genius.
What books helped guide you while writing your book?
I kept close How Fiction Works by James Wood, which feels like a conversation with a friend who loves fiction. As far as novels, I spent a lot of time with my diasporic faves. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri single-handedly inspired me to begin writing Blow Yourself Up. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie was a huge inspiration. I’ve loved reading all of Hari Kunzru’s works. His New Yorker story Raj, Bohemian opened me up to writing South Asian characters beyond well-tread paths. I also spent a lot of time with Mohsin Hamid’s work, especially Exit West. He’s such a fantastic writer and thinker, and studying the way he challenges himself to evolve between each project is on my mind as I start my next novel.
What books are on your nightstand now?
Transcription by Ben Lerner. I only read one book at a time, but I’ll drop in some recent reads. I finished fellow 2026 debuts Good News by Alexa Yasemin Brahme and Men Like Ours by Bindu Bansinath, both excellent. Looking ahead, I try to go thicc at least once a year and will get into The Pale King by David Foster Wallace.