"An extraordinarily thoughtful meditation on the depiction of illness, death and displacement, the expression of loss and grief, and the possible positive potential of the pandemic experience for the future."

Roughghosts

"The Second Wave is an unsettling read, deeply personal yet universal, horrifying yet infusing hope in the many acts of self-renewal and resistance during the pandemic. It is a book that merits multiple readings."

Biblio

"The Second Wave is an intellectual tour de force of contemplation on the depredations and consequences of the pandemic in India."

The Statesman

"Bharucha has certainly provided us the answer to the question ‘How to write about a tragedy?’ What is certain is that the manner in which Bharucha presents the pandemic before us and the fractures within our societies that he exposes, will change the lens the reader looks at the world through. The book would stay with the reader, urging her to keep coming back to it, a phenomenon rare with nonfiction."

Contributions to Indian Sociology

"Rustom Bharucha brings a poet's attentiveness and a lapidarist’s precision to his analysis of an unforeseen time and India's response to the Covid-induced pandemic."

Jerry Pinto, author of The Education of Yuri

"Cultural critic and dramaturg Rustom Bharucha’s masterful book takes readers on a trip into the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, with a particular focus on the harrowing days between April and October 2021. . . . Though it might be difficult to imagine finding hope in this scenario, Bharucha does just that—not by denying realities but by identifying in art an unexpected appreciation of what humans are capable of surviving."

Choice

"The Second Wave is a deeply personal meditation on humanity, death,
extinction, and performance — both cultural and artistic — embedded in the author’s own emotional and aesthetic experiences. . . a book that, above all, is a call for change motivated by the death, suffering, and extinction we have witnessed in recent years."

European Journal of Theatre and Performance