The English Problem: A Novel
Author: Kamlani, Beena
Binding: paperback
Number Of Pages: 455
Release Date: 28-01-2025
Details: A powerful story about the quiet devastations of colonialism and the price of belonging.
When eighteen-year-old Shiv Advani is handpicked by Mahatma Gandhi to study law in England and return as a leader of a liberated India, he leaves home reluctantly—newly and hastily betrothed, a wife he barely knows already carrying their child, and a life laid out for him by duty rather than desire.
But London upends everything. Drawn in and repelled in equal measure, Shiv enters a world shaped by the Empire. Its culture, privilege, and seductive freedoms slowly pull him away from the mission he came for as the people Shiv sought to be liberated from become the people he desperately wants to be a part of. As he trains at the Inns of Court and begins to carve out a new life, the distance between his two homes widens. Soon he is caught between loyalty and longing, tradition and transformation, two homelands, two identities, and two futures. In the end, Shiv must fight not only for his country’s liberation but also his own.
Set against the turbulence of India’s freedom movement, The English Problem is a lyrical, intimate, and politically resonant novel of a young man and a young nation, struggling to define themselves.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
“A dynamic character portrait as well as a nuanced depiction of India’s struggles against British rule. It’s a triumph.” — Publishers Weekly
“From these opening lines, Beena Kamlani introduces the primary conflict of her debut novel, The English Problem: the tension between the home we are from and the home we have chosen. . . . Kamlani’s writing vividly brings us into Shiv’s experience through his senses.” — BookPage
“[A]n assured work of historical fiction . . . Shiv, an engaging, torn, and complicated figure, centers Kamlani’s gripping and revealing account of London’s creative circle, the crimes of colonialism, and the slow march to India’s independence.”— Booklist
“Beena Kamlani’s voice is lyrical and poetic; her style embracing, haunting, inspiring. The novel is a beautifully realized story about colonialism and about love across racial, gender, and economic barriers in a toxic time.”— Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vols. 1–3
“What a grand, sweeping, mesmerizing book this is: a richly detailed, politically profound story of love, of migration, of individuals caught up in the great convulsions of history. Wow.” — Joseph O’Neill, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of Netherland
“Kamlani’s story of one man’s odyssey of discovery contains extensive historical context. Replete with lyrical imagery of rivers, the saga confronts issues of racism, class disparities, parenthood, and sexual acceptance. . . . Kamlani’s ambitious debut packs an important dose of relevant history into a very human story.”— Kirkus Reviews
“In elegant, evocative prose, Beena Kamlani evokes both the British understanding of India and the Indian understanding of Britain—each culture admiring yet misapprehending the other—and the life of a man who was of both cultures and of neither. Unpretentious, understated, fully authentic, this is a sweeping novel of dispossession, loss, dignity, and love. It contains darkness, loneliness, even tragedy, but also an almost Gandhian narrative of peaceable, unrelenting hope.” — Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon
EAN: 9789392279218
Package Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
Languages: English
Product Information
Product Information
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Shipping & Returns
The English Problem: A Novel
The English Problem: A Novel
Author: Kamlani, Beena
Binding: paperback
Number Of Pages: 455
Release Date: 28-01-2025
Details: A powerful story about the quiet devastations of colonialism and the price of belonging.
When eighteen-year-old Shiv Advani is handpicked by Mahatma Gandhi to study law in England and return as a leader of a liberated India, he leaves home reluctantly—newly and hastily betrothed, a wife he barely knows already carrying their child, and a life laid out for him by duty rather than desire.
But London upends everything. Drawn in and repelled in equal measure, Shiv enters a world shaped by the Empire. Its culture, privilege, and seductive freedoms slowly pull him away from the mission he came for as the people Shiv sought to be liberated from become the people he desperately wants to be a part of. As he trains at the Inns of Court and begins to carve out a new life, the distance between his two homes widens. Soon he is caught between loyalty and longing, tradition and transformation, two homelands, two identities, and two futures. In the end, Shiv must fight not only for his country’s liberation but also his own.
Set against the turbulence of India’s freedom movement, The English Problem is a lyrical, intimate, and politically resonant novel of a young man and a young nation, struggling to define themselves.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
“A dynamic character portrait as well as a nuanced depiction of India’s struggles against British rule. It’s a triumph.” — Publishers Weekly
“From these opening lines, Beena Kamlani introduces the primary conflict of her debut novel, The English Problem: the tension between the home we are from and the home we have chosen. . . . Kamlani’s writing vividly brings us into Shiv’s experience through his senses.” — BookPage
“[A]n assured work of historical fiction . . . Shiv, an engaging, torn, and complicated figure, centers Kamlani’s gripping and revealing account of London’s creative circle, the crimes of colonialism, and the slow march to India’s independence.”— Booklist
“Beena Kamlani’s voice is lyrical and poetic; her style embracing, haunting, inspiring. The novel is a beautifully realized story about colonialism and about love across racial, gender, and economic barriers in a toxic time.”— Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vols. 1–3
“What a grand, sweeping, mesmerizing book this is: a richly detailed, politically profound story of love, of migration, of individuals caught up in the great convulsions of history. Wow.” — Joseph O’Neill, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of Netherland
“Kamlani’s story of one man’s odyssey of discovery contains extensive historical context. Replete with lyrical imagery of rivers, the saga confronts issues of racism, class disparities, parenthood, and sexual acceptance. . . . Kamlani’s ambitious debut packs an important dose of relevant history into a very human story.”— Kirkus Reviews
“In elegant, evocative prose, Beena Kamlani evokes both the British understanding of India and the Indian understanding of Britain—each culture admiring yet misapprehending the other—and the life of a man who was of both cultures and of neither. Unpretentious, understated, fully authentic, this is a sweeping novel of dispossession, loss, dignity, and love. It contains darkness, loneliness, even tragedy, but also an almost Gandhian narrative of peaceable, unrelenting hope.” — Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon
EAN: 9789392279218
Package Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
Languages: English
Product Information
Product Information
Shipping & Returns
Shipping & Returns
Description
Author: Kamlani, Beena
Binding: paperback
Number Of Pages: 455
Release Date: 28-01-2025
Details: A powerful story about the quiet devastations of colonialism and the price of belonging.
When eighteen-year-old Shiv Advani is handpicked by Mahatma Gandhi to study law in England and return as a leader of a liberated India, he leaves home reluctantly—newly and hastily betrothed, a wife he barely knows already carrying their child, and a life laid out for him by duty rather than desire.
But London upends everything. Drawn in and repelled in equal measure, Shiv enters a world shaped by the Empire. Its culture, privilege, and seductive freedoms slowly pull him away from the mission he came for as the people Shiv sought to be liberated from become the people he desperately wants to be a part of. As he trains at the Inns of Court and begins to carve out a new life, the distance between his two homes widens. Soon he is caught between loyalty and longing, tradition and transformation, two homelands, two identities, and two futures. In the end, Shiv must fight not only for his country’s liberation but also his own.
Set against the turbulence of India’s freedom movement, The English Problem is a lyrical, intimate, and politically resonant novel of a young man and a young nation, struggling to define themselves.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
“A dynamic character portrait as well as a nuanced depiction of India’s struggles against British rule. It’s a triumph.” — Publishers Weekly
“From these opening lines, Beena Kamlani introduces the primary conflict of her debut novel, The English Problem: the tension between the home we are from and the home we have chosen. . . . Kamlani’s writing vividly brings us into Shiv’s experience through his senses.” — BookPage
“[A]n assured work of historical fiction . . . Shiv, an engaging, torn, and complicated figure, centers Kamlani’s gripping and revealing account of London’s creative circle, the crimes of colonialism, and the slow march to India’s independence.”— Booklist
“Beena Kamlani’s voice is lyrical and poetic; her style embracing, haunting, inspiring. The novel is a beautifully realized story about colonialism and about love across racial, gender, and economic barriers in a toxic time.”— Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vols. 1–3
“What a grand, sweeping, mesmerizing book this is: a richly detailed, politically profound story of love, of migration, of individuals caught up in the great convulsions of history. Wow.” — Joseph O’Neill, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of Netherland
“Kamlani’s story of one man’s odyssey of discovery contains extensive historical context. Replete with lyrical imagery of rivers, the saga confronts issues of racism, class disparities, parenthood, and sexual acceptance. . . . Kamlani’s ambitious debut packs an important dose of relevant history into a very human story.”— Kirkus Reviews
“In elegant, evocative prose, Beena Kamlani evokes both the British understanding of India and the Indian understanding of Britain—each culture admiring yet misapprehending the other—and the life of a man who was of both cultures and of neither. Unpretentious, understated, fully authentic, this is a sweeping novel of dispossession, loss, dignity, and love. It contains darkness, loneliness, even tragedy, but also an almost Gandhian narrative of peaceable, unrelenting hope.” — Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon
EAN: 9789392279218
Package Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
Languages: English
