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In the cutthroat, high-stakes world that is the Mumbai elite, relevance is currency, and becoming irrelevant is a worse form of oblivion than death. The latest from Shunali Khullar Shroff, ‘The Wrong Way Home’ (Bloomsbury), to be released to bookstands in December 2025, is a razor-sharp dissection of this phenomenon.
On the heels of the success of Love in the Time of Affluenza, which author Kevin Kwan called a "delicious treat," author Shroff brings a tale that veers from the acidic tongue of societal satire to the tender, vulnerable side of a woman who is forced to reinvent her life at the age of forty.
The novel leads us to Nayantara, or Nayan, a heroine who, as she describes herself, is a "character who might sound pretty easy to dislike on paper, but, please, she is impossible not to root for in real life."
According to actress Sonali Bendre in her foreword, Nayan is "a shallow, manipulative social climber," but she is " disarmingly real."
Nayan's world has been turned upside down. Her ex-husband's second marriage to a "hot, young influencer" was a shock-and-a-half, coming on the heels of a divorce that had left her "broke, single, and essentially, dumped by the society she once ruled".
Hustle for relevance
The heart of the novel is Nayan’s best-effort struggle to revive her PR agency. The theme is brought alive in detail by Shroff’s telling of what it takes to keep "optics" going in modern India. Nayan's client roster is a Rolodex full of insecurity anxieties-like that of the rusting superstar, the politician with a bad image, and the chic but small-town-born socialite.
Nonetheless, Shroff is strongest when she focuses on what it takes to be a champion on the professional side of things. In a very engrossing section in the book, Nayan's getaway plans are ruined when a corporate scandal erupts.
Vitalis Therapeutics, a large client, is alleged by a competitor to be making false claims about the potency of an anti-malarial medication. The story lays bare the "cut-throat world of pharmaceuticals" and the daft standards of the corporate environment in India, with a senior VP going into a tantrum because his PR people had the temerity to take a weekend off.
Nayan's handling of this crunch—a strategic hammering-out of a plan, suppressing the "knots twisting in her gut"—demonstrates her professionalism. She is more than a socialite; she is a survivor. This is evident when she efficiently handles the client's ego, asking him to call her with "Mr High-and-Mighty Senior Marketing VP," so she can take him through the strategy. The situation she is handling this crunch contrasts with the setting of this incident mountain resort-emphasizing the inevitability of the "Mumbai hustle.”
Theatre of social media
One of the most powerful themes in this book is "performing happiness". At a point when her career is staring at disaster, she seems obsessed with "the optics." In Landour, she wants a "crackling fireplace" that is not just for taking the chill out of the room but as prop any way to show her that she is living her "most hygge life for 'gram." She even mentions applying a "#celebrating life" filter on a picture because she wants to put it across to her ex's friends that she has "not curled up and died."
This is an all-too-real description of online anxiety. "Today, there are more divorces than at any other time in India's history, but there is a lack of voices that tell their experiences in an honest, vulnerable way,” Divia Thani, Global Editorial Director of Condé Nast Traveller, aptly points out. Shroff gives us an inkling about that vulnerable Nayan through his inner thoughts.
The term 'romantically taken' relates to being in a romantic relationship with someone, or what people also refer to as being 'relationally taken'.
Though the satire hurts, the real pulse of the novel is in the relationship that Nayan shares with her mother and a new lover named Vikram. The relationship that Nayan shares with her mother is charged with latent tension: "her mother, resplendent in her dazzling rust-coloured hand-spun saree", is a woman who once chose rural farmers over Nayan.
The irony is evident when Nayan notices that her mother has suddenly fallen in love with Vikram's young daughter, Maia. "This is what my father did: he played mother to me when my real mother wasn't around," Nayan says, "and now my mother has suddenly fallen in love with Maia's 'mother' figure, who is now twenty years late with her biological clock ticking."
The irony here is obvious when Nayan realizes that her mother has now started loving Vikram's young daughter, Maia. "This is what my father did: he played mother to me when my real mother wasn't around," Nayan says, "and now my mother has suddenly fallen in love with Maia's 'mother' figure, who is now twenty years late with her biological clock ticking."
The irony here is when Nayan realizes the unconscious overnight change of her mother's feelings towards Vikram. The romantic plot follows the story of Vikram, who is a separated father bringing up his daughter single-handedly.
Nayan gets trapped between two men representing "consistency, reliability, and commitment" and "charm, glitter, and temptation"; even before meeting Vikram, Nayan finds herself "plotting her nuptials" to prove that she's really over someone comedic yet tragic insight into how desperate she feels for external validation.
Tailpiece
The Wrong Way Home is a masterclass in tone. "Shunali has served up a shot of limoncello – light, delicious, and has left me pleasantly buzzed,” says author/ journalist Namita Devidayal, hitting the nail squarely on the head. It is a peculiar kind of novel that can affirm the "absurdities and aspirations of modern society" while still making those poignant notes that set everything in perspective.
"Shroff’s writing is superb. light, easy, hilarious," but it does not shy away from the hard realities of a woman living in a world fixated with appearance. The characters, as mentioned by the praise, "leap off the page because they feel so familiar, almost like people you know".
For the contemporary reader, on a contemporary day, such as today, 13th December 2025, "The Wrong Way Home" presents a reflection of our own lives, our filtered self-portraits, our private anxieties, and our abiding wish for a second chance. This is a read which entertains with such ease, but as Sonali Bendre explains, "nudging you to reflect".
Rating: 4/5, an absolute must-read for one and all who have tried to "filter" their way through a crisis.
In the cutthroat, high-stakes world that is the Mumbai elite, relevance is currency, and becoming irrelevant is a worse form of oblivion than death. The latest from Shunali Khullar Shroff, ‘The Wrong Way Home’ (Bloomsbury), to be released to bookstands in December 2025, is a razor-sharp dissection of this phenomenon.
On the heels of the success of Love in the Time of Affluenza, which author Kevin Kwan called a "delicious treat," author Shroff brings a tale that veers from the acidic tongue of societal satire to the tender, vulnerable side of a woman who is forced to reinvent her life at the age of forty.
The novel leads us to Nayantara, or Nayan, a heroine who, as she describes herself, is a "character who might sound pretty easy to dislike on paper, but, please, she is impossible not to root for in real life."
According to actress Sonali Bendre in her foreword, Nayan is "a shallow, manipulative social climber," but she is " disarmingly real."
Nayan's world has been turned upside down. Her ex-husband's second marriage to a "hot, young influencer" was a shock-and-a-half, coming on the heels of a divorce that had left her "broke, single, and essentially, dumped by the society she once ruled".
Hustle for relevance
The heart of the novel is Nayan’s best-effort struggle to revive her PR agency. The theme is brought alive in detail by Shroff’s telling of what it takes to keep "optics" going in modern India. Nayan's client roster is a Rolodex full of insecurity anxieties-like that of the rusting superstar, the politician with a bad image, and the chic but small-town-born socialite.
Nonetheless, Shroff is strongest when she focuses on what it takes to be a champion on the professional side of things. In a very engrossing section in the book, Nayan's getaway plans are ruined when a corporate scandal erupts.
Vitalis Therapeutics, a large client, is alleged by a competitor to be making false claims about the potency of an anti-malarial medication. The story lays bare the "cut-throat world of pharmaceuticals" and the daft standards of the corporate environment in India, with a senior VP going into a tantrum because his PR people had the temerity to take a weekend off.
Nayan's handling of this crunch—a strategic hammering-out of a plan, suppressing the "knots twisting in her gut"—demonstrates her professionalism. She is more than a socialite; she is a survivor. This is evident when she efficiently handles the client's ego, asking him to call her with "Mr High-and-Mighty Senior Marketing VP," so she can take him through the strategy. The situation she is handling this crunch contrasts with the setting of this incident mountain resort-emphasizing the inevitability of the "Mumbai hustle.”
Theatre of social media
One of the most powerful themes in this book is "performing happiness". At a point when her career is staring at disaster, she seems obsessed with "the optics." In Landour, she wants a "crackling fireplace" that is not just for taking the chill out of the room but as prop any way to show her that she is living her "most hygge life for 'gram." She even mentions applying a "#celebrating life" filter on a picture because she wants to put it across to her ex's friends that she has "not curled up and died."
This is an all-too-real description of online anxiety. "Today, there are more divorces than at any other time in India's history, but there is a lack of voices that tell their experiences in an honest, vulnerable way,” Divia Thani, Global Editorial Director of Condé Nast Traveller, aptly points out. Shroff gives us an inkling about that vulnerable Nayan through his inner thoughts.
The term 'romantically taken' relates to being in a romantic relationship with someone, or what people also refer to as being 'relationally taken'.
Though the satire hurts, the real pulse of the novel is in the relationship that Nayan shares with her mother and a new lover named Vikram. The relationship that Nayan shares with her mother is charged with latent tension: "her mother, resplendent in her dazzling rust-coloured hand-spun saree", is a woman who once chose rural farmers over Nayan.
The irony is evident when Nayan notices that her mother has suddenly fallen in love with Vikram's young daughter, Maia. "This is what my father did: he played mother to me when my real mother wasn't around," Nayan says, "and now my mother has suddenly fallen in love with Maia's 'mother' figure, who is now twenty years late with her biological clock ticking."
The irony here is obvious when Nayan realizes that her mother has now started loving Vikram's young daughter, Maia. "This is what my father did: he played mother to me when my real mother wasn't around," Nayan says, "and now my mother has suddenly fallen in love with Maia's 'mother' figure, who is now twenty years late with her biological clock ticking."
The irony here is when Nayan realizes the unconscious overnight change of her mother's feelings towards Vikram. The romantic plot follows the story of Vikram, who is a separated father bringing up his daughter single-handedly.
Nayan gets trapped between two men representing "consistency, reliability, and commitment" and "charm, glitter, and temptation"; even before meeting Vikram, Nayan finds herself "plotting her nuptials" to prove that she's really over someone comedic yet tragic insight into how desperate she feels for external validation.
Tailpiece
The Wrong Way Home is a masterclass in tone. "Shunali has served up a shot of limoncello – light, delicious, and has left me pleasantly buzzed,” says author/ journalist Namita Devidayal, hitting the nail squarely on the head. It is a peculiar kind of novel that can affirm the "absurdities and aspirations of modern society" while still making those poignant notes that set everything in perspective.
"Shroff’s writing is superb. light, easy, hilarious," but it does not shy away from the hard realities of a woman living in a world fixated with appearance. The characters, as mentioned by the praise, "leap off the page because they feel so familiar, almost like people you know".
For the contemporary reader, on a contemporary day, such as today, 13th December 2025, "The Wrong Way Home" presents a reflection of our own lives, our filtered self-portraits, our private anxieties, and our abiding wish for a second chance. This is a read which entertains with such ease, but as Sonali Bendre explains, "nudging you to reflect".
Rating: 4/5, an absolute must-read for one and all who have tried to "filter" their way through a crisis.
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