And then finally I felt sadness, aided perhaps by those futile notes, by the dust that keeps thickening, by the untouchable past, the inevitable future, and by everything else that pushes us around.'

Ib lives with his schizophrenic father and his 'nice' mother negotiating life, not knowing what to do, steered by uncaring winds and pushy people. From his slimy, unmiraculous birth to the tragic death of a loved one, Ib wanders the city, from one thing to another, confused, lost and alone, all the while reflecting on his predicament. He is searching for something-what he does not know-and must overcome many obstacles: family, religion, love and, finally, death. Will he be defeated by 'this wreckage of modern life?' Will a mysterious woman lift him out of the 'cement' in his soul?

In this journey of sadness and self-reflection, Ib tranforms into an ordinary man from an ordinary boy and along the way, tries to figure out life and understand himself.

In this audacious debut that is insightful, original and deeply disturbing, Roshan Ali's play of language is nothing less than masterful.
Shortlisted for the JCB prize for literature 2019

Ib’s Endless Search for Satisfaction by Roshan Ali A young man searches for an answer to the question – Is there a purpose to life?
Ib is a strange young man who is alienated by the rhythms of modern life and finds little in his circumstances that is worth redemption. Stuck between his mentally ill father, timid mother, and a domineering grandfather who intends to push Ib into a life of convention, Ib retreats to his imagination. As he drops out of college, follows a wise man to the Himalayas, and spends an inordinate amount of time in his favourite pub, he tries to make sense of the world around him.

Ib’s Endless Search for Satisfaction is Roshan Ali’s debut novel. Powered by the rhythmic influences of Saul Bellow, this novel is a wry look at Ib’s nihilistic tendencies and the lies we tell ourselves to navigate contemporary life.

Roshan Ali is thirty years old. He started writing soon after dropping out of college. His work has been published in the Huffington Post India and blogs at www.thesapota.com. He lives in Bengaluru with his wife and two dogs. This is his first novel