About the book

Besieged by grief, British war photographer Joseph Nightingale travels to Cambodia, attempting to come to terms with a past that haunts him and a present that has grown unrecognizable. There, a surreal night and a brush with death lead him to Song, a young Cambodian woman grappling with the mounting psychological and physical scars left by a lifetime of poverty and violence. When Song mysteriously disappears, it’s up to Joseph to piece together the clues, and he finds himself entangled in a web of transnational crime, arms dealing, sex trafficking, and corruption, where nothing and no one are what they seem.

Together, Joseph and Song go to new lengths to protect and care for each other in a world where unimaginable atrocities are just a means to an end. As they navigate this brutal terrain and confront the consequences of their separate pasts, it is their unexplainable though undeniable bond that gets them through. Pulse-pounding and poignant, Between this World and the Next balances unforgettable moments of cruelty with scenes of devastating softness. In this arresting, beautifully paced page-turner, Praveen Herat blurs the boundaries between good and evil, inviting readers to reexamine complicity and the consequences of looking the other way.

Praise for between this world and the next:

“A dogged thriller with political bite. Herat recalls Robert Stone with his themes of morality, redemption, and uncrossable cultural boundaries. . . . In capturing a place and state of mind in which corruption is viewed as ‘the only breach against chaos,’ the London-based, Sri Lanka–rooted author has given us a book that won’t be easy to forget.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“Herat impresses on his first time out, with well-shaded characters and gripping suspense . . . this is worth seeking out.”

— Publisher’s Weekly

“One of the chilling pleasures of this book is Herat’s vivid, knowledgeable portrait of this threatening netherworld, from outposts like the Naga to breakaway states like Transnistria, where money is exchanged for advanced weaponry and private armies are assembled to rule in feudal power.”

— Alden Mudge, BookPage

“A page-turning literary thriller that you won’t be able to put down.”

— Electric Literature

“Herat’s prose, raw and clear, also revs and roars.
His world is the devil’s world. Licked by beauty, laced with venom. 
Stay for the madness, Herat says. Captivated, we comply.”

— Deepak Unnikrishnan, author of Temporary People

“Captivating, immersive, and arrestingly beautiful, Between This World and the Next holds you in its grip as it effortlessly navigates the complexities of our modern world.”

— Saleem Haddad, author of Guapa

“A hauntingly beautiful story of loss and war and the lives we build around them. Herat’s rendering of Cambodia is vivid, dark, and heartbreaking, as three-dimensional as any character. With echoes of Lawrence Osborne and Graham Greene, Between This World and the Next brutally and wrenchingly captures the consequences of modern amorality and the sacrifices we make for redemption. A tale that's determined not to let you go.”

— I.S. Berry, author of The Peacock and the Sparrow

“After a chance encounter, Song and Fearless, each burdened with trauma, each with grief, set off on an extraordinary journey. First through the Cambodian underworld to uncover the mastermind behind a brutal criminal ring, then across Asia, Africa, and Europe to find and save each other, and finally through a mazy wilderness of arms dealers, spies, ordinary citizens, and corrupt, powerful bureaucrats to see if even in this fallen world, they might retain their fundamental humanity and, just possibly, also find the one true reason to live: love. Thrilling, terrifying, and complex, endowed with unforgettable characters and imbued with great beauty, Between This World and the Next is a terrific, gorgeous novel.”

— Paul Griner, author of The Book of Otto and Liam

“Set in Cambodia, Between This World and the Next is a tender yet clear-eyed thriller, enlivened by a large cast of succinctly drawn characters led by haunted war photographer, Fearless, and Song—a local young woman who has just about mastered how to keep her nightmares at bay. Elevated by a subtle hum of near-poetic prose, Between This World and the Next is a compelling debut by a novelist who clearly enjoys his storytelling, but also cares about enduring human questions of love and rage, witness and action, and what it means to be good.”

— Nii Ayikwei Parkes, author of Azúcar

“An intricate international thriller, Between This World and the Next tells the story of Fearless, a burned-out British war photographer, and Song, a Cambodian woman who has been physically and psychologically marked by the violence in her country. When Song disappears, leaving only a mysterious videotape behind, Fearless must navigate a dangerous network of power brokers, transnational kingpins, sex traffickers, and arms dealers, uncovering a sprawling network of criminality and corruption in a newly post-Soviet world. Praveen Herat challenges our complicity as passive observers when exposed to a constant stream of media depicting suffering across the world and asks what we truly know about anyone, even those we hold dearest. And yet, riven by dark acts, the book is uplifted by love—love between sisters, love of the bereaved, and a remarkable platonic love between Fearless and Song.

This propulsive, page-turning novel is a passionate exploration of power, poverty, and greed. With its sharp new perspective, Between This World and the Next pushes the boundaries of what a literary thriller can achieve.”

—Prize Judges Tiphanie Yanique, Deepak Unnikrishnan, and Ilan Stavans

About the author: