Five years after the Covid-19 pandemic left an indelible mark on the world, a Queens-based author’s latest novel reminds readers of the humanity behind the horrors.
Set after the Covid lockdown in the summer of 2020, Flushing native Tejas Desai’s “Bad Americans: Part I” follows 12 people from all backgrounds and walks of life as they are invited to stay in reclusive billionaire Olive Mixer’s mansion in the Hamptons. Their stay echoes modern reality TV shows, as the visitors date, dine and even fight during their 12-day stay, but each of them must share a personal story with the group at night.
“It both operates as a panoramic portrait of the pandemic experience during Covid in America, and particularly in New York City and the surroundings, and it also operates as a standalone novel,” Desai told the Chronicle. With elements reminiscent of “The Bachelor” and “Big Brother,” his novel incorporates humor alongside its intensity.
Iconic literary works such as “The Decameron” and “The Canterbury Tales” inspired his frame narrative and stories within a story, which are fictional, but based on harrowing realities. The first one, entitled “On the Frontlines,” centers on the experiences of healthcare workers at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, where Desai’s mother worked.
It starts as a relatively quiet hospital tableau, and in the blink of an eye, employees must fight to save their patients’ lives, as well as their own.
“It shows in a really intense way how the pandemic really affected lives, especially at Ground Zero,” Desai said. The novel offers multiple points of view, not only from healthcare professionals, but also from patients, bus drivers, delivery workers and more.
“All the characters are very different from each other, and they all kind of battle just like in real life, but at the end of the day, they’re all Americans,” Desai said. “They’re all human beings. They all have to live on the earth together.”
Even before the pandemic hit, Desai said, he was already planning to write a novel set during one. And when he experienced it firsthand — he and several relatives contracted the virus early on — he knew it was the perfect time to start writing.
“I enlisted all these people I knew … even people I barely knew in college, but I contacted them and they were willing to help me out. People who were in these professions that I was writing about,” Desai said.
Writing the detailed, in-depth stories was the relatively easy part compared to crafting the frame narrative, he said.
Being a writer was always the goal for Desai, who started penning stories at just 8 years old. He said he was already writing novels by the time he reached middle school, and he finished his first one at 17.
“Bad Americans” is Desai’s fifth book. Among his other works is the Amazon No. 1 bestselling crime trilogy “The Brotherhood Chronicle.” “Bad Americans” is part of a series entitled “The Human Tragedy,” whose first volume, “Good Americans,” was published in 2013.
Desai also is an assistant manager at the Queens Public Library’s Cambria Heights branch. He holds two master’s degrees from Queens College, in creative writing and library science.
The novel, which contains six characters’ tales, came out on Sept. 15, and the individual stories were published as Kindle eBooks before that. The first story in “Bad Americans: Part II” came out on Oct. 15, and the full book will be released April 15.
The books are published by The New Wei, a literary movement that Desai founded in 2012. It started as a literary salon in 2023, in which writers came together at different venues across the city to find ways to support each other’s work.
“Bad Americans: Part I” is available anywhere books are sold online. It also is available as an eBook on Amazon.