Photos courtesy of Dr. Anand Bosmia
Dr. Anand Bosmia and the cover of his book, "The God at Dusk"
Dr. Anand Bosmia’s debut novel, “The God at Dusk,” is a crime thriller that blends Southern Gothic atmosphere with questions about faith, grief and evil.
When Dr. Anand Bosmia reminisces about growing up in Homewood, he remembers the laughter of his father, the quiet aisles of the Homewood Public Library and the hum of a neighborhood that shaped both his heart and his imagination.
Those memories now echo through his debut novel, “The God at Dusk” — a crime thriller and psychological study that blends Southern Gothic atmosphere with questions of faith, grief and evil.
Set largely in Birmingham’s over-the-mountain communities, the book opens with the body of a televangelist’s daughter found dead in an affluent suburb. Soon after, a small-time drug dealer is discovered murdered on the outskirts of Jefferson County, occult symbols carved into his skin. The case draws in forensic psychiatrist Mayank “Full Moon” Seth, who had previous plans to treat the drug dealer.
As Seth teams up with two detectives, Curtis Chess and Roger Barbeau, to investigate the killings, he finds himself caught between faith and madness — between the demons within and those lurking in the world around him.
Bosmia’s connection to the Birmingham area runs deep. Born in the city and raised in Homewood, he is the first American-born member of his family. His parents, Natwarlal and Beena Bosmia, came to the United States from India by way of Kenya in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His father taught mathematics and statistics at Birmingham-Southern College for two decades. His mother, once a physician in India, chose to raise their three sons full time.
Their dedication and their later passing — his father from a heart attack in 2003 and his mother from brain cancer in 2023 — form the emotional core of his writing.
“Writing the scenes where Seth remembers his father was both painful and cathartic,” Bosmia said. “My grief was a driving force for this book.”
He graduated from Homewood High School in 2005 and from medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham before completing his psychiatry residency and a forensic fellowship at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. Today he practices general adult and forensic psychiatry in Louisiana.
Bosmia says he began drafting “The God at Dusk” during his psychiatry training, jotting down notes between night shifts at the hospital. His professional life — studying criminal behavior and mental illness — gave the book its clinical precision, while his personal search for faith gave it its soul.
“Writing about evil and analyzing evil clinically are two sides of the same coin,” he said. “As a psychiatrist, I see the ways pain and brokenness can twist people. But as a believer, I also see the chance for redemption.”
The novel’s realism comes from his work in forensic psychiatry, where he evaluates defendants’ mental states for court.
“The story begins with a psychological autopsy,” he said, referring to a real investigative tool used when the cause of death is uncertain. “I wanted readers to feel that these events could actually happen.”
At the same time, he admits, the book’s darker turns reflect the kinds of questions he has wrestled with since his father’s death.
“My father used to hear about acts of violence and say, ‘What human beings do to each other!’ That question stayed with me.”
For local readers, one of the most striking elements of “The God at Dusk” is its setting. Bosmia filled the novel with familiar landmarks: the Storyteller fountain at Five Points South, Gilchrist in Mountain Brook Village, the old J. Clyde pub and Davenport’s Pizza Palace.
“I have to write what I know,” he said. “Maybe that’s a limitation, but I can’t imagine setting a story somewhere that doesn’t have personal meaning. Having it take place in Birmingham helped me breathe life into the characters.”
The book’s imagery gives the over-the-mountain communities an unexpected noir quality — streetlights cutting through humid summer nights and faith-tinged dialogue echoing from pulpits and diners alike.
“Instead of a detective in Los Angeles, I wanted a jaded psychiatrist in Mountain Brook,” Bosmia said with a laugh. “He’s trying to make sense of his faith while eating pizza and driving past the Vulcan statue. That’s the Birmingham I know — full of contradictions but also full of grace.”
Growing up Hindu in a mostly Christian region also shaped his perspective.
“There was never persecution,” he said. “There was just a cultural tension — the kind that happens when first-generation immigrants raise kids in a different world.”
After years of questioning and reflection, Bosmia is now preparing to join the Roman Catholic Church in 2026.
“That journey of faith is something I share with my characters,” he said. “They’re all looking for truth in a fallen world.”
Although the book moves between modern-day Birmingham and flashbacks to the 1980s, the decade plays a crucial role. Bosmia, born in 1987, has long been fascinated by the era’s music and by the “Satanic Panic” that gripped parts of the country.
“The 1980s represent both innocence and hysteria,” he said. “They’re the perfect backdrop for exploring religion and madness.”
That fascination is personal, too. After his father’s death, Bosmia remembers staying up late and seeing a TV commercial for an ’80s music collection.
“Hearing songs like ‘I Ran’ by A Flock of Seagulls made me miss him so much,” Bosmia said. “Ever since, ’80s music has been tied to both grief and comfort for me.”
In the novel, those sounds — along with small nods to Birmingham radio and culture — help connect the characters’ internal struggles with the city’s broader moral landscape.
Now in his third year of private practice, Bosmia still returns to Birmingham when he can. During a 2025 visit, he donated a signed copy of “The God at Dusk” to Dreamland Bar-B-Que, one of his favorite local spots.
“I was raised vegetarian,” he joked, “but Dreamland changed that. I love the place so much I put it in the book.”
Asked if revisiting Homewood through fiction changed how he sees it, Bosmia said it gave him a more cinematic view.
“When you grow up somewhere, you take it for granted,” he said. “Writing about Homewood made me realize how beautiful it really is — and how much it shaped who I am.”
If “The God at Dusk” ever makes it to television, Bosmia already knows where he’d want it filmed.
“The Magic City would be perfect,” he said. “But for now, I’m just grateful that the stories I carried with me all these years finally have a life of their own.”
