About The Book

What if you’ve been frozen in stasis for a hundred years for a crime you may or may not have committed?
An impoverished young man, Jagat, is found guilty of murder. For his crime, he is sentenced to the highest form of punishment—the sleep of death for a century, with the promise of revival should his innocence ever be proven.
But his act sparks violence in the great city of Peruma, with the Commune, an anarchist collective of workers, revolting against the Council, which has ruled Peruma for four hundred years. Drained by endless conflict, Council and Commune negotiate a hundred-year treaty that is to be enforced by an impartial body: the guardians of the Confederation.
And now, a century later, the Charter is a week away from lapsing. Tensions run high in Peruma. As an uncertain future looms, Nila, a young guardian, is approached by a mysterious woman who insists that Jagat’s case be reopened before it’s too late. Drawn by the prospect of undoing a possible historical injustice, Nila agrees. But as she begins to unearth the past, forces, known and unknown, thwart her at every turn.
What secrets does the city hold? Who is working in the shadows against her—and why? What is the price of resurrecting a martyr? The Sentence raises questions about justice, rights and ethics that will echo in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page.

‘There may be a time, Guardian, when it doesn’t matter whether our peace is founded on the truth or a lie. All that matters is that there is peace.’

About the Author

Gautam Bhatia is the author of the science fiction duology, The Wall (2020) and The Horizon (2021), published by HarperCollins India. Both titles earned critical praise in Locus, Interzone, Vector and other newspapers. He was long-listed for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer at the World Science Fiction Convention in 2021 and 2022. His short stories have appeared in The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, Grimdark Magazine and Mint.
Gautam is the co-ordinating editor of Strange Horizons, a weekly science fiction magazine that won the British Fantasy Award in 2021 and the Hugo Award in 2024. He is also the founder of New Delhi’s first (and so far, only) science fiction reading club, and has been running a fortnightly newsletter focusing on developments in Indian genre fiction for the last three years.
In his other life, he is a lawyer and public commentator on civil and constitutional rights in India.