Karan Mahajan's third novel, The Complex, unfolds as both a sweeping historical chronicle and an intimate portrait of domestic conflict within a single Punjabi family across decades. The narrative opens with the murder of patriarch Laxman Chopra, a shifty and charismatic figure whose death has cast a shadow over the once-respectable family for twenty-five years. His killer, Laxman's nephew Brij, is about to be released from prison, prompting his son Mohit to invite him back into the family home—a decision that triggers a retrospective journey through the events and tensions that culminated in the crime.
The novel, which became available in India in May 2026, represents Mahajan's return to fiction after a significant gap. His earlier works, Family Planning and The Association of Small Bombs, examined individual lives against the backdrop of larger social forces—urban development and terrorism's aftermath respectively. The Complex similarly anchors itself in a specific place and historical moment, but expands its scope dramatically, moving between Delhi's suburbs, Indian villages and cities, the American midwest, and London through short chapters that shift focus among various family members.
At the heart of the narrative lies the residential compound that gives the novel its title: a deteriorating collection of flats and bungalows in Delhi's suburbs that became the Chopra family's base during the post-independence era under SP Chopra, a freedom fighter turned politician and businessman. Following SP's death from a heart attack in the boardroom, his nine children and their descendants have inhabited the complex, never quite matching his stature. The building itself becomes a character—a sun-eaten structure where family members gossip, manage servants, and compete for the best apartments while flouting regulations and one another's wishes.
The narrative focuses primarily on SP's youngest son Laxman, who half-heartedly operates a bobby pin factory and manages a local temple; Brij, a former military pilot turned paper-mill manager; and Sachin, Brij's younger brother, who relocates to Michigan to manufacture squeezable plastic sauce bottles. The women of the family carve out what agency they can within these constraints. Laxman's wife Archana steals moments of solitude and cigarettes on the complex roof, while Brij's wife Karishma walks through the overgrown garden. In America, Sachin and his wife Gita enjoy greater physical space but endure isolation intensified by frequent family visits, during which relatives demand constant tea service and offer unsolicited commentary on the couple's inability to conceive. The aggressive and entitled Laxman makes unwanted advances toward both Gita and Karishma.
As the 1970s transition into the 1980s and 1990s, Sachin and Gita return to Delhi while Laxman, Karishma, and Brij collaborate on producing a line of ayurvedic balms. Children study for examinations and play cricket; adults quarrel, scheme, and attempt to overlook the increasingly open infidelity surrounding them. Beyond the compound walls, socialist governments shift toward pro-business policies, Indira Gandhi is assassinated, and Hindu nationalism gains momentum. Laxman initially works to ease tensions before becoming instrumental in a nascent political party designed to inflame them: the BJP. The novel engages with the rise of Hindu nationalism and the anti-Muslim rhetoric surrounding Laxman's political involvement, grounding the family drama within turbulent historical currents.
The novel maintains a constant state of tension, populated by deeply flawed and often reprehensible characters who believe that money, force of personality, or well-placed favors can resolve any problem. The Chopra family deteriorates progressively, and the complex functions simultaneously as palace and prison, described through imagery of
glum black water tankies; the clotheslines savagely crossing the roofs; everything sloping toward death.
Mahajan's psychological acuity prevents the work from descending into bleakness. The Complex achieves an immersive, immediate quality that captures moments of genuine beauty: marble temple floors
the colour of a thunderstorm, or the image of Gita protecting her
inky Banarasi silk sari from the cinders whizzing like miniature glowing kites. Kindness emerges in unexpected places, particularly in the tender dynamic between Gita and her nephews. Yet the darkness receives equally vivid treatment: brutal conversations at the snack table, vengeful nationalism, caste prejudice, the surreal horror of communal violence, and Laxman's predatory behavior.
Mahajan constructs the narrative so that the Chopras' trajectory toward murder and radicalism unfolds not as a shocking revelation but as an inevitable progression. The author scatters sufficient clues throughout that readers perceive the path toward violence as a procession rather than a twist—one densely populated with drama and vitality. The work functions simultaneously as a grand historical sweep and as a domestic novel preoccupied with petty squabbles, demonstrating how intimate family conflicts intertwine with larger political upheavals.
The novel received critical attention from major publications in 2026, with the Kirkus review appearing in December 2025 ahead of the book's wider release. The Viking edition runs 443 pages, while the HarperCollins India edition contains 428 pages and retails at ₹799. This substantial work represents a significant literary achievement from Mahajan, combining meticulous character development with sweeping historical scope to create a portrait of a family and a nation in transformation.
