Publishers Weekly
10/07/2024
Former Viking Penguin editor Kamlani debuts with an insightful chronicle of a young Indian man’s turbulent and transformative years in Great Britain. In 1931, Mahatma Gandhi sees a future leader of the independence movement in Shiv Advani and sponsors the 18-year-old’s London education. While studying at the Inns of Court, Shiv faces racial prejudice during a debate with a barrister, who calls him a “heathen” when he dares to question the precedent of English law. He then does his best to assimilate, even after discovering his sexuality with aristocratic Lucien Calthorpe, who breaks off their affair when Shiv refuses to be more public about their relationship. By 1934, having become a barrister, he finds love with the rebellious Julia Chesley, who helps Shiv start a magazine championing Indian independence. In 1941, Shiv survives an assassination attempt while delivering a speech in Glasgow, forcing him to return to India and the parents who feared he abandoned them. Kamlani’s portrayal of Shiv’s tribulations and his compromises makes for a dynamic character portrait as well as a nuanced depiction of India’s struggles against British rule. It’s a triumph. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
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
“A dynamic character portrait as well as a nuanced depiction of India’s struggles against British rule. It’s a triumph.”—Publishers Weekly
“[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
“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
“The English Problem is powerful and profound—a journey across the world, rich in geography, history, philosophy, psychology! 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. It is a glorious achievement.”—Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vols. 1–3
“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. Her characters are beautifully evoked and profoundly true; her narrative of displacement and desire is persuasive and resonant; and her deep understanding of the broken politics between societies trying to make sense of each other feels particularly relevant in today’s world. 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
Kirkus Reviews
2024-10-11
Is it a curse or a blessing to live though the proverbial “interesting times?”
Upon meeting Mahatma Gandhi—a guest in his family’s home—for the first time at the age of 10, Shiv Advani tells the legendary Indian statesman that he wishes to be just like him when he gets older. Gandhi encourages him, but reminds him it will require both hard work and the relinquishment of all desire. Shiv believes, naively, he can follow the path set out for him, but the lures of personal contentment and satisfaction tempt him all the way through Kamlani’s examination of the tumultuous years before India’s independence from British rule. Sent to study law in London as an 18-year-old at Gandhi’s behest, Shiv has a goal of becoming proficient in British law and returning to India to advance the independence movement through non-violent means. Over his years of legal education, training, and early practice in England, Shiv becomes more aware of the costs of self-denial and of the nuances—sometimes cruel—of British culture. Shiv’s growing awareness of his own sexuality and his place within a culture which often treats him with disdain takes place against the backdrop of slow-moving political and cultural transformations in both Britain and India and the advancing threat of World War II. Inspired by her uncle’s experiences, 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. A tour de force moment of period-appropriate cultural dissection occurs when Shiv’s British lover attempts to provide a crash course in how to be “one of us.”
Kamlani’s ambitious debut packs an important dose of relevant history into a very human story.
