Deb began his career in journalism as a sports journalist in Calcutta in 1994 before moving to Delhi where he wrote longform features, cultural essays, and book reviews.

It was published in the United States as An Outline of the Republic and was shortlisted for the Hutch Crossword Award in India and long listed for the International Dublin Impac Prize.

[4] The Kashmiri writer Feroze Rather described it in The Nation as "an enraged epic but also one full of humanity; its various epochs of bigotry, intolerance, and hate are interspersed with tender moments of solidarity, love, and compassion.

[6] During the same period, he was also a columnist for Baffler magazine,[7] writing devastating critiques of US liberalism and its comfortable relationship with empire and Indian literary culture and its toadying up to neoliberalism and Hindu nationalism.

A contributing editor to the New Republic and a prolific contributor to the books pages of Harpers, The Nation, and N+1 he has written extensively on writers including Roberto Bolaño, John Berger, Don DeLillo, Naiyer Masud, Hanya Yanagihara, and H.P.