Another Country

by Anjali Joseph

Twenty-something Leela is trying to figure out what to do next, who to fall in love with and where she belongs in the world. The problem is the that no matter where she goes - Paris, London, Bombay - or what she does - teaching or temping, dating or committing - life doesn't appear to offer any straightforward answers.

A poignant, evocative journey over two continents and though the adult spheres of work, sex, and convenient friendship, Another Country is about growing up, moving on and discovering that what you thought you wanted is not what it seemed.

Genres: India, Fiction, Travel, Love, London, Asia

263 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2013

About the author

Anjali Joseph was born in Bombay in 1978. She read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has taught English at the Sorbonne. More recently she has written for the Times of India in Bombay and been a Commissioning Editor for ELLE (India). She graduated from the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia with distinction in 2008. Saraswati Park is her first novel.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hmm, what can I possibly write about this book? I read Anjali Joseph’s Another Country because it was longlisted for the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize. Against my better judgement, I finished it because it was longlisted for the 2012 Man Asian Prize.

This is what they say about it:

Paris, London, Bombay: three cities form a backdrop to a journey through Leela’s twenties at the dawn of the new millennium, as she learns to negotiate the world, work, relationships and sex, and find some measure of authenticity. Sharp, funny, and melancholy, Another Country brings a cool eye to friendship, love, and the idea of belonging in its movements through old and new worlds. As with her debut, Saraswati Park, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Prize and India’s Vodafone Crossword Prize, Anjali Joseph’s beautiful, clear writing captures exactly both emotions and surroundings.

Not only that, but the blurb at the Book Depository says it’s a superb second novel from an award-winning author. And fellow shadow-juror Mark Staniforth’s mum liked it too.

I think I must have been reading a different book. Maybe there was a mixup with the covers? Perhaps they rushed out some ‘not-bad-but-needs-a-lot-of-work’ first draft by mistake when there was a rush on the title and they had to do a hasty reprint?

To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/01/04/an...

[Meghan Betts · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first book from ShelterBox book club, and i was really excited until i saw the Goodreads reviews. Actually in the end i was pleasantly surprised that i quite enjoyed the book. It's oddly written and reminds me a bit of a poem, with beautiful descriptions and seemingly random observations and time jumps that don't always seem to make much logical sense, but fit in the overall narrative.
I felt that Leela was struggling with her mental health throughout the book. There wasn't really a 'plot', it was more a journey through her life and how she often seemed quite lost. I did enjoy it overall.

[Fern A · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn’t get into this and probably wouldn’t have carried on reading after the first 100 pages if it wasn’t for it being part of a book club discussion. I felt nothing really happened and it all was fairly disjointed.

[Mark Staniforth · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the red corner in this year’s battle for the MAN Asian Prize, Qian Xiaohong, fiery heroine of Sheng Keyi’s 'Northern Girls', a girl who thinks nothing of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the creaking might of the Chinese state as part of her irrepressible quest to wring the most from life.
In the blue corner, Leela, a rootless twentysomething who is the star – although that is probably too strong a word – of Anjali Joseph’s tale of nothing-much-really, 'Another Country'.
The thought crossed my mind midway through Joseph’s second novel – her first was the multiple award-winning ‘Saraswati Park’ – of how much better Leela’s life would be if novels could somehow cross-pollinate – in musical terms, I think the kids call it a mash-up – and Qian, Keyi’s unforgettable siren, could pop up to give Leela a few words of advice. Or, even better, a kick up the backside.
Leela starts ‘Another Country’ as a student-turned-temp in Paris, where she gets a mundane job and shrugs off the perfectly ordinary attentions of a reasonable man. She moves to London, where she does much the same, adding a few pangs of regret to try to spice things up, and eventually returns to India, the home of her parents, where another dim desk job and reasonable man await to be dimly and reasonably rejected.
The novel begins:

Leela, self-conscious, released into the world, walked down the boulevard de Sebastopol. A September afternoon. Chestnut trees allowed their leaves to fall; the warm air carried them to the pavement. She had never seen leaves fall so slowly.

Frankly, if this novel constitutes Leela’s ‘release’ into the world, then it provides a convincing argument for her prolonged captivity.

Read the full review at my blog here

[Jennifer Smalley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this book as part of the @shelterboxbookclub . This was my first book from them. The aim is to read books from authors around the world. It did just that. However that's where the positives end.
This was by far the worst book I have ever read. There was no real story line, the main character was aimless and miserable. She'd fall in love, get angry at the person for a dumb reason, and then break it off. The language in the book was needlessly complicated. It read like a young child using a thesaurus for the first time. I finished only to take part in the book club conversation, but also was hoping the entire time that it would get better. Honestly have no idea how this book won any awards.

[Professor Weasel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me of my own life, sigh. I loved this sentence: "Leela felt dazed, as though someone had said, ‘Bombay? You like Bombay?’ and then forced her to sit down and eat the entire city, spread out on a conveyor belt."

[Jemma Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't struggle to get through it and never felt like I had to force myself to read it....but at the same time I wasn't itching to get back into it or finish it to find out what happens, mostly because I just didn't care what happened. I didn't feel like I really got close to any of the characters, including Leela who narrates the entire book. The characters were like people walking by, we are given snippets of a passing conversation but no details. There are details about rooms and even a fruit salad....however I didn't feel a connection to the people in this story. Part of this is the story I guess....as Leela floats around not really knowing what she wants to do, who she wants to be and who she wants to be with she doesn't allow herself to connect with others for long...so I guess neither can we. I read this as it was part of the Shelterbox book club - potentially not something I'd have picked up otherwise and this is the exact reason why I joined the club.

[Gemma Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as part of the Shelterbox book club, although given the blurb it is something I would have read if I'd come across it myself. Having spent time in all of the cities featured this had an obvious appeal. I did like following Leela's story but at times I was frustrated with her: sometimes I felt she put up with things she shouldn't have and others I wanted to express how she was feeling. The quote on the front says 'hauntingly melancholic' and I think that's true she is very melancholic and never seems particularly happy even when she's apparently in love. I can definitely understand her moving around trying to find her place but she seemingly doesn't find happiness in much.
I hope her next chapter changes that.

[Batool · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just raced through this one, the plot lacks depth and throughout the book we just keep moving at random with the lead girl from one man to the next or one from job to the other. I failed to grasp the intent behind this book and what the author was really trying to say.

[Martyna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received it from Shelterbox book club and was intrigued by very divided opinions as it seemed that others either hated or loved it. For me it was neither, I enjoyed it to some extent and noticed a few interesting observations and thoughts, but overall it's not a book I'll remember in a few months' time.

[Lynrose · Rating 2 out of 5]

The locations hooked me in Paris, London and Bombay but the main character is negative, miserable person who makes the worst of every situation. She becomes slightly more content in India but there's no happy ending.

[Kadri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite sad and depressing, but very enjoyable.

[Matt Potter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really unsure why this book was written or even published. Leela the heroine is perpetually disappointed, grumpy, disgruntled, and doesn't change or see the flipside ... so why bother? I really liked the author's 'Saraswati Park' but I think that's it for me, with this author now ... a shame. The BIG question really is, why doesn't Leela go onto anti-depressants?

[Sophie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t really get this book. It is short and easy to read, there is just no real plot. Nothing much happens apart from the main character aimlessly cycling through various relationships. Fairly disappointing.

[Tara M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible.

[Jenny Ekberg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ice-cold. Unrelatable characters. Binned it.

[Soh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Read

[siena · Rating 3 out of 5]

a very meandering poetic novel without much of a plot or resolution at all. the cover says “hauntingly melancholic” and i think that’s very apt

[Jac · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some really nice paragraphs and lines in this book. The story however didn't really flow for me. I finished the book not really understanding what had happened.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not have been more disappointed by this book. Getting through it was like wading through treacle and if I hadn’t been reading it for a book club there are a number of points where I would have given up.

Picking up the book I immediately thought of ‘Another Country’ by James Baldwin and the bar was set high. I thought possibly this story would be a nod to that; exploring love and longing while addressing race, class and sexuality. Well reader, it was not.

The first thing to say about the book is that there is absolutely no character development. Not an iota. I know no more about Leela’s upbringing, her class, how her race has affected her life, how her inner workings are manifested, than I did at the beginning of the book. As for other characters, they float in literally as names and then disappear again. This means it is almost impossible to build any empathy for them and so the story falls flat.

The second thing to say is that the story makes no sense. Because we can’t understand the motivations of Leela her flitting between Paris, London and Bombay comes across purely as a plot device. In addition no time is taken to bring these cities to life, no lush descriptions of Bombay exist, no intricate understanding of London is laid bare and no detailed illustration of Paris ever appears.

The final reason I’ve given a 1 star rating is for a small incident in the middle of the book of completely unnecessary racism. As I’ve mentioned, sadly there is no exploration of the way Race has affected the characters lives, and for the most part it’s never even mentioned, even for Leela. However in a bar in Bombay in the corner of the room we meet “a large, quite drunk black man”, I was intrigued by him and hoped a new and interesting character
was being introduced, but no. Moments later they leave the bar but not before saying of the man “he looks a bit like a drug dealer”. It was such a small point, it had literally no effect on the plot and it’s so obviously an odious racist stereotype. I stopped reading for a week and only agreed with myself to continue because I would draw attention to it in this review.

Overall, this book is lazy, lazy caricatures, lazy plots, no descriptions, no development. I can’t really understand how it was published let alone nominated for prizes. Unless you absolutely have to read it I’d steer well clear.

[Therese · Rating 3 out of 5]

As many of the other reviewers have said, this was a pretty miserable book. That being said, I have my own positive and negative criticism to add.

Positives: the description of what the main character was experiencing was very well done. I especially liked her observation of human interactions either with herself or others. The author really captured microagressions very well in particular. She really brought to light what an average day might be like for any woman out in the world.

Negatives: Unfortunately the author's tendancy to jump around not only from physical place to place as well as just casually mentioning the aftermath of other occurrences without any pretext was extremely annoying. It had me often flipping back a few pages thinking I'd missed something, but the connection between cause and effect simply wasn't there. I'm guessing she left it up to us, the readers, to work out what happened. I just didn't like those tactic as I have ADHD and when this happens in a book I assume I blanked out and missed something because of my own shortcomings.

The other thing I didn't like about this book is the constant misery of it. It was a trainwreck as I couldn't stop reading thinking maybe the main character's depression would lift, maybe she'd finally stand up for herself and demand more from others in a healthy easy, but it was just one sabotaged relationship after another right up to the end, so don't expect a happy ending.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is wonderful and I really enjoyed the little details Joseph puts into her books, obvious inclusions from a little black notebook where she jots down her various observations and perceptions of the world. Another country speaks to me of dislocation and the vividly described disorientation of a young woman who lives out of suitcase and is constantly hoping to fit in somewhere without trying too hard to. Leela seems to lightly attach herself to locations, friends and boyfriends so that she can just as easily detach herself from them. I enjoyed the writing style and the concept, but halfway through the book I began to miss having a plot to drive the story. This book is hard to read in one go because of the lack of plot. Still, there’s something in the writing style that I loved.

[Karen M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I wouldn’t like this - but I was drawn into Leela’s life and her struggle to find a place, an identity , a character of her own. There was a definite Dallowayness about it, not that it was one day or a discrete setting but the flow of the words and the feelings the way a day can ‘unfold with tedious languor’. Shalini Sahni and her parties seem a nod to Woolf.
Stretching out from London to Paris and to Mumbai then back it never failed to make me believe in the characters or the settings. Mumbai was so beautifully crafted that I ached to walk along Marine Drive , there’s another book hidden in here and I hope she writes it.
There’s also humour spiking the story and characters that spring from the pages with their hopes and dreams. Sometimes jarring , sometimes sad but always readable.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This got an absolute slating on Goodreads and I really wasn't sure about starting it but I honestly don't get all the hate. Nothing really huge happens, in the grand scheme of things, it's one of those quiet books, nuanced, about finding your place in the world. A series of observations about making friends, rejecting lovers, not knowing what you want, of feeling unsettled wherever you are, like you aren't quite there. I can see why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea and how you'd get to the end and go 'what was the point in that' but it was nice to read a troubled, complex, non cookie-cutter female voice. Not one I'm going to go raving about, but not one I'll probably forget either. 3.5 for me.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t quite decide what I think about this book – think I have absorbed it’s main character’s indecisiveness! It certainly was an easy read, sentences were very short and simple but the emotions were communicated well, even if not probed. Sometimes there were random and perhaps startling observations, seemingly unconnected to previous sentences. I felt there was a potential for depth but it was never explored and the disconnectedness between the stories and chapters left a lacklustre impression. The last 3rd of the book started to annoy me, character’s dithering became irritating. Overall it lives me without a strong opinion: it provided an OK read for a couple of hours but I wouldn’t seek out more of this type of writing.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this book and wondered could it be an age barrier (me being old), This was a book about a young person trying to figure out what to do next and where she belongs in the world. It was hard for me to relate to this. I had thought as it was set in London, Paris and Bombay it would be open to diversity but the book was really more about Leela trying to work out who she was and the settings were almost irrelevant. I had to stop myself thinking I wanted to have a good talk to Leela. However I got to the end and I can see the appeal it may have with others. Perhaps I should be more understanding and look more into the depth of the work.
I will now try and read a different book by this author and see what happens there.

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as my first ShelterBox Book Club read and it was a great start. I enjoyed it, so am surprised by the reviews.

It’s definitely a slow burner, and more about the nuanced and detailed observations made by our protagonist Leela, about people, places and relationships. It’s slow, winding, honest and intriguing. It’s not an action-packed, plot point driven story. I liked that personally.

It’s a story of a young Indian woman in the pursuit of belonging, purpose and happiness. Paris, London, Bombay - each city brings friendships, work and love interests, and raises questions about who or what makes a place feel like home, and what really matters.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like others who have reviewed this book, I got it through the Shelter Box Book Club but have only just read it. I enjoyed the locations, as I knew them all fairly well, and I thought it was often a very subtle exploration of early relationships. In some senses the book lacked a core narrative and drifted somewhat randomly. To begin with I was disappointed by that but I think that is probably what the author was trying to convey. Leela's life is disconnected and disjointed; without clear purpose.

I wouldn't rave about it but I enjoyed it overall and found some value in the explorations of the journey into adulthood.

[Camilla Bass · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I received with ShelterBox Book Club, and it was definitely something I wouldn’t have thought to read otherwise. But I was pleasantly surprised (especially after reading some disparaging reviews on Amazon!) Joseph weaves a melancholic tale about a young woman fresh out of university who spends time in Paris, London and Mumbai, struggling to find a purpose and fit in. I loved the split between the three countries and really enjoyed the way Joseph painted life in each place. There's no huge plot twist or main event to shock and surprise the reader, but I actually enjoyed how the story gently ebbed and flowed as the protagonist finds her feet in the world.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

a enjoyable light and easy read with exquisite writing .