Indian · b. 1974
Manu Joseph is an Indian journalist and novelist born in Kerala. He worked for many years as a magazine journalist and edited the Indian news magazine Open, and he has written columns for The New York Times and other international publications. His debut novel, Serious Men (2010), a satire about a Dalit father who promotes his son as a genius, won the PEN Open Book Award and the Hindu Literary Prize and was adapted into a Netflix film. His second novel, The Illicit Happiness of Other People (2012), was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. He later wrote Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous (2014) and The Counterfeit Salesman. Joseph is known for dark humour and sharp commentary on caste, class and Indian middle-class life. His nonfiction book Why the Poor Don't Kill Us (2025) asks why India's poor do not revolt against the rich.