The Golden Gate marked the debut of famed poet and novelist, Vikram Seth, in the year 1986. Inspired by Charles Johnston's translation of Eugene Onegin, this book is a novel in verse composed with beautiful lyrical sonnets.

John, a young and successful engineer, finds his life boring outside his work and calls his ex-girlfriend Janet and grieves his loveless life. Janet agrees to help out John by finding him a date and advertises for the same in a local newspaper. Liz, a lawyer by profession responds to the ad. John and Liz hit it off instantly and very soon find themselves living together.

Phil, a close friend of John, is a divorcee who lives with his son and raises his voice against nuclear weapons. When Phil attends the party at Liz’ family, he finds Ed, Liz’ brother and both fall in love. Set in the nostalgic era of 1980s, The Golden Gate trails the story of a group of youth living in San Francisco, who embark on a journey of interpreting life, in search of adventure, trying to understand the meaning of love.

The book was published by Penguin India in 2012, and is available in paperback.

Key Features:

• The Golden Gate was the first novel written by Vikram Seth.


• The Golden Gate won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for English in 1998.