Arathi Menon: Illegal to be Gay?

Part of Leeds Lit Fest 2026. See the full programme at https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/

'Da' is a story of love between a father and a son.

13-year-old Ved is a sweet, inquisitive boy living in a world where love must hide in plain sight. His adoptive father, Da, is his entire universe - fiercely loving, fiercely protective, harbouring a secret that could destroy them both: Da is gay at a time when Section 377 makes homosexuality a crime. Set in an Indian metropolis in 2013, 'Da' is a tender story of a boy caught between devotion and fear, chronicling the everyday courage it takes to love someone the world refuses to accept.

Author Arathi Menon in conversation with Isabelle Kenyon, Managing Director of Fly on the Wall Press.

Arathi Menon is an author and columnist based in London. She completed her MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at the University of East Anglia. Her debut book, a memoir titled 'Leaving Home with Half a Fridge', was published by Pan Macmillan India. Her middle-grade mystery novel, 'A Thud in the Middle of the Night', was brought out by DC Books, Kerala, and later published by Yali Books, New York, under the title 'A Mystery at Lili Villa'.