Novel set in South London (and India)

28th August 2019

The Nowhere Man by Kamala Markandaya, novel set in South London (and India).

The author wrote this novel in the early 1970s but it never reached the critical acclaim that her debut novel A Handful of Rice did. The Nowhere Man was, however, her own personal favourite of all the books she wrote.

The book is set against the backdrop of the later 1960s and against Enoch Powell’s notorious Rivers of Blood speech (20 April 1968) which stoked racism, causing an unprecedented increase in hate and upsetting the equilibrium that Srinivas, the protagonist, has managed to establish. Srinvias arrived optimistically in Britain from India, anticipating a good and uneventful life.

Srinivas has settled in a leafy South London suburb. He has built a home together with his wife Vasantha, producing two boys. One has since died and the other has moved to the South Coast, harbouring a sense of shame when it comes to his parents’ set up.

Vasantha passes away and Srinivas enters a new phase of life. Mrs Pickering, who is down on her luck, moves in with him – theirs is a relationship of convenience, both of them living pretty harmoniously under the same roof, sharing food and company and just quietly getting on with everyday life. But attitudes around him are changing and finding dark expression.

Flashbacks to India set the scene for his departure from his homeland. Life there under British rule is depicted as a pretty toxic experience for many within the indigenous communities and this theme is something that the author explored in her novels time and again.

Srinivas is portrayed as a sanguine man who takes a lot in his stride. The pace of the novel is taut, with an overriding gentleness which becomes more poignant as circumstances change and come to a head. A pertinent and prescient read in today’s political climate. The prose is elegant and thoughtful.

Kamala Markandaya ‘told India’s tales to the world and beyond, and brought  a young new nation into the global literary conversation‘ (Manu S Pillai)

Tina for the TripFiction Team

The Guardian Newspaper has written an astute review here 

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