Product details
- ISBN 9798899480645
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 133 x 203mm
- Publication Date: 15 Sep 2026
- Publisher: Northwestern University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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A story of first love across cities spanning the decade that transformed the internet
In the halls of an elite East Coast high school, Arjun and Payal fall in love as the world begins to tilt toward the digital. Over the next eight years, their trajectories diverge as sharply as the fractured internet itself. Payal ascends to the dizzying, dopamine-fueled heights of New York's influencer economy, finding fame on Boost, a looping video app that is as rewarding as it is demanding. Meanwhile, in a cavernous office in Chicago, Arjun, a musician whose dreams have quieted, now cleans up the same platform's debris, moderating the internet's darkest videos. When a brutal act of political violence against a beloved musician goes viral, this rip in reality forces the pair to confront the motivations of the platforms they inhabit. A sharp exploration of creative ambition and the multifarious nature of identity, this is a story of love in the time of infinite scroll and a look at what we sacrifice to be seen.
Ankur Thakkar is a writer and multimedia artist whose stories have appeared in Guernica, [PANK], and TriQuarterly, and his essay "Swipe" was selected by Medium as one of the best pieces of writing about the internet. He was a 2025 Sewanee Writers' Conference Scholar and is a content designer at YouTube, as well as a practicing artist with recent exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo and La Friche la Belle de Mai. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
