Crime of passion, crime of uttering words provoking gender politics, crime of dissent, crime of scatology, crime of turning the definition of aesthetics on its head, crime of merely stating truths — these are some important tropes that populate R Raj Rao’s new volume, Hybristophilia. “See a therapist / Said my doc. / I’d rather see / The rapist, said I” — is an example of his no-nonsense direct-vernacular poetic device. Read the book for its urgency. — SUDEEP SEN