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Pleasure, desire, bondage; intimacy, affection, sheer revelry; fear, uncertainty, discomfort – the myriad expressions of the erotic are revealed in Close, Too Close: The Tranquebar Book of Queer Erotica, the first South Asian anthology of its sort. In this path-breaking entry into both the queer literature and erotica genres, fifteen writers and artists from across the subcontinent (and beyond) freely explore the illimitable possibilities of genders and sexualities constantly present all around us. In the pages of this book, on a crowded bus ride, over a cosy bowl of rajma-chawal, amidst the bustle of a swanky pool’s changing room, in the familiar embraces of city flats, bungalows and teacher-training hostels, friends (or chance-met strangers) turn lovers; ideas of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ take different meaning(s); the world reveals its queerness. Intimate, thrilling, moving, sometimes even puzzling, but always intriguing, the stories in this anthology bring both the erotic and the queer closer than ever before.