Devi S. Laskar

Devi S. Laskar is a poet, journalist, and novelist whose work examines belonging, family memory, and the pressure of racism on ordinary life. The Atlas of Reds and Blues is her debut novel, published by Counterpoint, and unfolds through brief, non-linear scenes surrounding an Indian American mother in the Atlanta suburbs. The unnamed protagonist once worked as a crime reporter, and the novel's fragmented form brings professional observation into contact with an Indian American family's experience of hostility and police power. The novel's compressed episodes move among childhood, motherhood, neighborhood hostility, work, and encounters with authority, allowing memory to accumulate rather than follow a simple chronology. Laskar's background in poetry is visible in that concentrated form, where recurring colors and images carry emotional weight across fragments. The Atlas of Reds and Blues presents a single life through interruption, showing how public prejudice reaches into domestic routines, personal identity, and a family's sense of safety.