The Sea Elephants

Akella debuts with the tantalizing story of a boy chafing against India’s homophobic culture in the 1980s and 1990s. Shagun, raised by his mother while his architect father, Pita-jee, lives in England for work, has an idyllic childhood with his younger twin sisters, Mud and Milk, with whom he play-acts Sanskrit myths in their tree house. His life changes drastically at 16 when Mud and Milk drown in the Bay of Bengal and his father returns from England for the funeral. Pita-jee demeans and humiliates Shagun, who is gay, in an attempt to make him act more masculine. While at the boarding school he chose to be away from his father, Shagun is sexually abused and mercilessly bullied, and he learns Pita-jee has sent a man named Vikrant to take him out of school and put him in conversion therapy. He drops out and joins a traveling theater troupe, and over the next several years, he performs the stories from his early childhood and finally gains acceptance for his acting and his sexuality. Still, he fears his father or Vikrant will catch up with him. On its face, this seems a straightforward story about overcoming adversity, but Akella’s relaxed pacing and deep dives into his characters’ inner lives allow for nuance and surprises. This is one to savor. (July)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misspelled a character’s name.