Gabriel Packard holds the position of Associate Director at the Creative Writing MFA Program at Hunter College, located in New York City. His journalistic works have been featured in over 100 global publications. In addition, he has led creative writing workshops at numerous universities across the U.S. and U.K., such as Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, U. Penn, Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton, and Wellesley.
Gabriel Packard has emerged as an exceptional new literary figure, with his first novel The Painted Ocean demonstrating a daring mastery of the art. It’s an uncommon accomplishment – an emotionally profound literary piece, presented as a captivating, page-turning narrative. The portrayal of a British Indian upbringing and adolescence is thoroughly engaging, as is the symbolic examination of the human experience. Gabriel Packard’s initial novel is distinctively unique. Narrated by the unfortunate yet resilient Shruti, whose vibrant, modern voice conceals deep suffering, the novel spans from her harsh childhood in southern England to her remarkable confinement on a barren island in the Indian Ocean.
The realm of Shruti’s experiences oscillates between the known sinister reality and an even more ominous imagined one. The Painted Ocean is a book that is both unsettling and unforgettable. Its intensity is akin to a dream, while its range is monumental, marking a powerful start in fiction for Gabriel Packard. His writing style is unique, unforgettable, and dynamic. Gabriel Packard has crafted a book that publishers, readers, and the world at large are craving for: an exciting, well-written debut, a smart page-turner that grips your emotions with its swift, harsh clasp. I started reading the first page of this novel and ended up spending the rest of my weekend engrossed in it.
The Painted Ocean exhibits the emotional depth, intellectual prowess, and linguistic finesse reminiscent of Charles Dickens, with a youthful protagonist as vibrant, intelligent, and emotionally charged as, for instance, Huck Finn. This debut novel by Gabriel Packard, which narrates the agonizing transition into adulthood of a British-born, first-generation immigrant girl from India in the ’90s, holds the potential to be a universally sought-after read – the protagonist’s humanity in the face of severe hardship, coupled with her captivating dialect, is profoundly compelling. Much like Dickens and Twain, the narrative voice crafted by Packard is intricate, ethically provocative, and a genuine literary triumph.
