The Elsewhereans: A Documentary Novel

by Jeet Thayil

'Mercurial, witty, luminous' - DEVIKA REGE

'Thayil's masterpiece' - WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

Jeet Thayil's The Elsewhereans is a genre-defying novel that melds fiction, travelogue, memoir, a ghost story, a family saga, photographs and much else into a tale that unfolds across continents and decades.

From the backwaters of Kerala to the streets of Bombay, Hong Kong, Paris and beyond, Thayil maps the restless lives of those shaped by separation - both the ones who leave and the ones left behind.

A hypnotic meditation on migration, loss, and the fragile threads of identity from one of the most brilliant voices in contemporary literature, The Elsewhereans is a novel of retrieval and reinvention - an elegy for vanished worlds, and a reckoning with the histories we inherit.

Genres: India

222 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 23, 2025

About the author

Jeet Thayil (born 1959 in Kerala) is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is best known as a poet and is the author of four collections: These Errors Are Correct (Tranquebar, 2008), English (2004, Penguin India, Rattapallax Press, New York, 2004), Apocalypso (Ark, 1997) and Gemini (Viking Penguin, 1992). His first novel, Narcopolis, (Faber & Faber, 2012), was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize and the Hindu Literary Prize 2013.

Reviews

[a_geminireader · Rating 5 out of 5]

" The Elsewhere by " Jeet Thayil isn’t just a novel — it’s an atmosphere. Reading it felt like walking through rooms filled with memories, some familiar, some foreign, but all carrying a strange weight. It’s haunting, poetic, and deeply human in the way it explores migration, identity, and the fragile idea of belonging.

At the heart lies the story of George and Ammu Thomas, but Thayil doesn’t stop there. He carries us through Kochi, Bombay, Hong Kong, and Paris, showing how places themselves become archives of love, loss, and longing. The characters are flawed, messy, and heartbreakingly real — the kind that stay with you long after the last page.

What makes this book unforgettable is its form. It bends genres — part memoir, part fiction, part travelogue, and even ghost story. The inclusion of photographs blurs the line between reality and imagination, adding an eerie layer to the narrative. And Thayil’s prose? Silken, sharp, and strangely comforting, even in its melancholy.


For me, this wasn’t just about the story — it was about the feeling it left behind. I’ve always been drawn to books that blur the line between memory and imagination, and this one did it beautifully. It felt like a mirror to all the unspoken emotions of migration, belonging, and love that slips through time. I loved how it made me pause, reread, and even sit in silence just to process the weight of its words.

🍂if you’re someone who loves:

Books that feel like experiences, not just stories

Complex, layered characters you can’t forget

Writing that lingers like an old song

Narratives that blur truth, memory, and imagination


This isn’t a book you pick up lightly, and it’s not one you put down easily. The Elsewhere doesn’t just tell you a story — it leaves its echo inside you, long after you’ve finished reading.

[Mahesh K · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his lyrical prose, Jeet bends genres, memories, time, and space. Episodically, he assembles characters whose peculiarities linger in the reader like an aftertaste. One chapter that particularly stands out is ‘Isolation’, which evokes an emotion so singular that I find myself rereading it just to name it.

[Mugdha Mahajan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It begins with a wedding of George and Ammu, two dreamers who leave Kerala behind in search of a new life. From Bombay’s busy lanes to Hong Kong’s glittering skyline, their journey unfolds through decades and continents, stitched together by letters, memories, and ghosts of home. As their son grows up watching his parents build and lose worlds, the story becomes more than a family chronicle - it becomes a search for belonging.

What really struck me was how real it all felt. Jeet Thayil doesn’t just tell a story, he makes you feel it - the weight of memory, the pull of home, the ache of being in-between places. I found myself pausing to think about my own roots and the idea of belonging. It’s emotional, poetic, and quietly unforgettable.

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hear a question these days, people asking: Where are you from? The reply is always one or two words, always inaccurate. Nobody is from one place.

We are all migrants.

Humanity migrated out of Africa in prehistoric times and spread throughout the world. In those days, there were no fictitious entities like nation states, borders, passports or visas. The earth, all of it, belonged to all living beings equally. Nobody came from 'elsewhere'.

It changed, of course. As we grew 'civilised', we divided up the earth and erected boundaries. And parcelled off small bits of land for ourselves. The people who crossed the border legally were 'expatriates': those who did so illegally were 'encroachers' or 'invaders'.

The creation of 'elsewhere' was complete.

***

We Malayalis (natives of the state of Kerala in Southern India) are known for our globe-trotting habits. "There is a Malayali in every corner of the world" is a popular saying in India. There is a famous joke that when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, he found a Malayali selling tea and snacks there.

Jeet Thayyil's parents, the famous journalist T. J. S. George and his wife Ammu, are already migrants (first within India, and then outside it) even before the travel bug has really bitten the Keralite. They settle in Bombay (now Mumbai) as outsiders; when they return to Kerala, they are still outsiders.

There is no sense of belonging or welcome. They’ve lived Elsewhere too long: they’ve become Elsewhereans.

This book is a collection of the disjointed reminiscences of the author, as well as the fictionalised reminiscences of his parents and relatives. The one common theme binding them as they flit across time and space, is migration. Whether it be the journalist settling abroad as part of his profession or the gardener walking across a Covid-struck India to his faraway homeland or the penniless refugee grubbing in the dirt to make a living, they share something common - the great Elsewhere.

In the pageantry of the island, unfolding district by district, Ammu experiences Elsewhere as a spiritual calling. Among crowds of people of every race and religion, she knows internationalism as the true nationalism and freedom as the only patriotism.

Jeet's family, including himself, comes across as pretty dysfunctional, comprising brilliant but troubled people. Of course, the author warns us in the beginning that the story is only partially true; but that is the case with all biographies. They are part truth, part false memory, part lies. But whatever be the veracity, the story is compelling. And the language is poetic.

Towards the end of the book, Ammu has an epiphany:

Now it seems to Ammu she has no home, for home is no longer a city or a country and the people in them, but the rooms of the houses in which she’s lived. The big bedroom she shared with her sisters at Anniethottam. The teacher’s quarters, two cots to a room, in Alwaye. The small front room in Mahim that served as both living and dining room, the city outside, just steps away from the floor she shared with her new husband. The balcony that ran the length of the apartment by the Arabian Sea on Cadell Road. The front room of the apartment at Pataliputra Housing Colony that became a meeting place for students. She’d taken care of the children there while George was in jail. The small living room of the apartment in Shirin Building, near Navy Nagar in Colaba. The bedroom of their first apartment in Hong Kong, at Arts Mansion. The kitchen of the second on McDonnell Road, where she thought of tearing into a hundred pieces the picture of the Vietnamese woman. The view from the apartment in New York, twelve floors up, of the canyons of Seventy-Ninth and York. Sirens at any hour of the night. The large front room of the first apartment she bought in Bombay. A six-inch view of the sea. Palm trees outside the fourth-floor window. The sunken living room of the first house they owned in Bangalore. The sunlit bedroom and garden of the second. The jackfruit tree and the butter fruit.

The remembered rooms unfold in her mind like pictures from an album with sheets of tissue between the pages. They bring vivid sensations that leave her grateful and surprised. She traces herself through the rooms of her life, opening seamlessly one into another, forward and back. So, on a rainy day in Mamalassery, when she steps indoors from the porch, it is to the cold muted light of a northern country. It seems correct then that these memories have lost their sting and can no longer cause hurt or happiness. They are only receptacles to return to her the past.

We are our memories - 'true' and 'false' have no meaning. Neither has space and time. It's one continuous experience, the transitory soul, the anatman, changing from moment to moment. A human being is not an entity but a process which unfolds in time. And 'Elsewhere' is an illusion.

[Rahul Vishnoi · Rating 5 out of 5]

-Like A Dream Woven Into Moonlight-
Review of 'The Elsewhereans'

Quote Alert
"𝐈𝐟 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲? 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞. 𝐀𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬: 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐧𝐞. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐲, 𝐘𝐞𝐬, 𝐈 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞."



Jeet Thayil's The Elsewhereans is a masterpiece in writing. Period. His words are silken, his story strong. When you don't realise how the pages fly, a master has been at work, day and night, crafting those wings with quill and paper. Reading Jeet Thayil is an experience you would not want to miss.

George is marrying Ammu Thomas. Defying the tradition, he goes to meet her before wedding, unchaperoned. Then at the wedding, he drops a bomb. He is not a Christian but a Hindu so he refuses to get married in a church.
Here, Thayil brings a hammer upon religious customs and rituals. He writes:
‘When a Kerala Christian bride comes into her marriage home, she crosses the threshold with her right foot, isn’t that correct?...But that is a Hindu custom and a marker of caste.’

Likewise, Thayil introduces patriarchy, domestic violence, religious bigotry. And he does that effortlessly, and at some places, cheekily with a chuckle hiding between the lines. Thayil weaves a bundle of humour and unleashed it upon the readers when they least expect him to.

The book carries a number of photographs which are strangely and eerily similar to the characters. Thayil hints at having taken inspiration from real life, like good fiction must.


The Elsewhereans is like life knitted into a story. Part fiction, travelogue, memoir, a ghost story, a family saga, it runs from country to country, from Kochin to the streets of Bombay, Hong Kong, and Paris.

I am glad to have read the words that rose out of the bottom of your heart, Mr Thayil.

[Prerna Shambhavee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine a story that seamlessly weaves together fiction, travelogue, memoir, and ghost story, set against the backdrop of continents and decades. Welcome to "The Elsewhereans," a masterpiece by Jeet Thayil that defies genre boundaries and takes readers on a hypnotic journey.

The novel explores the lives of those shaped by separation, migration, and loss, mapping the restless lives of individuals across the globe, from Kerala to Bombay, Hong Kong, Paris, and beyond. Thayil's writing is silken, his story strong, and his characters come alive with depth and complexity.

One of the most striking aspects of the book is its exploration of identity, history, and the fragile threads that bind us. Thayil effortlessly tackles sensitive topics like religious customs, patriarchy, and domestic violence, injecting humor and wit into the narrative.

The inclusion of photographs adds an eerie layer to the story, hinting at real-life inspirations. The author's ability to blend fact and fiction creates a narrative that's both authentic and engaging.

The story follows George and Ammu Thomas as they navigate their interfaith marriage, challenging traditional customs and rituals. Through their journey, Thayil raises important questions about identity, culture, and the complexities of human relationships.

✨What makes this book special:-

- Genre-defying storytelling that blends fiction, travelogue, memoir, and ghost story
- Exploration of migration, loss, and identity
- Strong, complex characters that come alive
- Thought-provoking themes and commentary on society
- Beautiful, silken writing that's a pleasure to read

"The Elsewhereans" is a novel that will stay with you long after you finish reading. It's a testament to the power of storytelling and the human experience. Jeet Thayil's writing is a masterclass in crafting a narrative that's both personal and universal. If you're looking for a book that will challenge your perspectives and leave you thinking, "The Elsewhereans" is an excellent choice.

[Aritri Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeet Thayil’s “Elsewhereans” is a masterful showcase of literary artistry that left me deeply impressed and thoroughly absorbed from start to finish. The quality of Thayil's writing is nothing short of exceptional—his prose is intricate yet accessible, with sentences that feel meticulously crafted and fluidly poetic. Every page offers a new surprise in the form of vivid imagery, subtle wit, and profound observations that linger long after the book is closed.

What sets Thayil apart is his deft ability to weave together complex themes with a lightness of touch. The book grapples with questions of identity, belonging, and the perpetual search for home, all told through multifaceted characters whose inner dilemmas mirror the external chaos they navigate. I found myself heartily enjoying the journey, not only for its narrative momentum but also for the immersive emotional experience it provided. There’s an elegance to the way Thayil draws out both beauty and melancholy from everyday moments, making the reader reflect on life’s bigger questions without ever feeling weighed down.

“Elsewhereans” stands out for its fearless experimentation and its sense of profound honesty. The structure, at times unconventional, never detracts from the storytelling—instead, it enhances the sense of displacement and longing that pulses at the heart of the book. I particularly appreciated how Thayil moves between perspectives, locations, and states of mind with remarkable ease, inviting me to inhabit a world that is simultaneously familiar and strange.

Ultimately, reading this novel was a richly rewarding experience. Thayil’s command over language and narrative form is extraordinary, but what made the book truly memorable for me was the depth of feeling and intelligence it consistently delivered. I highly recommend “Elsewhereans” to anyone who cherishes literary fiction that challenges, moves, and delights in equal measure.

[Mili Das · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost like a poetry, deeply moving, engraved roots in your heart with such beautiful lucidity that will make you astonished. It reminds me Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese but not like that tome, it's all about ambiance that is yarning for all your heart. If you have read the book then you will understand what you are getting inside this book.

An astonishing piece of work that leaves us a legacy that we can find proudly, a sensitive work that left mark on your mind, it will be with you for a long time I am sure.

Poignant narrative punctuated with witty sharp edges that delicately transpires something very familiar, you will not just read the word you will breathe with each character.

THE ELSEWHEREANS: A Documentary Novel by Jeet Thyle

Blurb:
A genre-defying novel that melds fiction, travelogue, memoir, a ghost story, a family saga, photographs and much else into a tale that unfolds across continents and decades.

From the backwaters of Kerala to the streets of Bombay, Hong Kong, Paris and beyond, Thayil maps the restless lives of those shaped by separation - both the ones who leave and the ones left behind.

A hypnotic meditation on migration, loss, and the fragile threads of identity from one of the most brilliant voices in contemporary literature, The Elsewhereans is a novel of retrieval and reinvention - an elegy for vanished worlds, and a reckoning with the histories we inherit.

Verdict: Highly recommended.

[Aditi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Elsewhereans, Jeet Thayil unfolds a genre-defying narrative that travels through history, geography, and memory. Subtitled “A Documentary Novel,” it begins with epigraphs, photographs, and locations that lend it the texture of a fragmented memoir. The story traces the lives of his parents, Ammu and George, from their unconventional introduction in 1957 through decades of marriage, migration, and upheaval. City by city, from Kerala and Bombay to Hong Kong, Hanoi, Paris, and New York—their memories thread together lives that have always felt unsettled.

Thayil blurs fact and fiction with subtle precision: “The real names and photographs… are fictions. The fictional names and events are documentary. The truth… lies in between.” The novel becomes a moving collage, where grief, displacement, longing, and family lore collide. It refuses neat categorization-part travelogue, part family saga, part elegy.

What emerges is a meditation on belonging: at home, the characters become “Elsewhereans”, people whose identity drifts, whose sense of place is fluid yet rooted in memory.
Thayil’s narrative flows like a restless river, each fragment a tributary, merging into something broader, timeless.

This is storytelling as archaeology. Without forcing drama, it reveals how histories reverberate through generations, across continents. The Elsewhereans is not just a novel, it’s a home constructed from remembrance, displacement, and the quiet ache of survival.

[Aparna Prabhu · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Objects have an inner life acquired from the people to whom they're attached. I thought it might be possible to describe a society by describing the things it uses, grand objects as well as humble ones, especially humble ones.”

- Jeet Thayil, The Elsewhereans

George is a journalist from Bombay who reported about the Vietnam war from the frontlines. The difficult relationship with his son opened the doors to a past, that was resurrected by silences and stories. An old photograph of a young woman on a motorcycle piques his curiosity which takes him to the haunted lanes of Vietnam.

The Elsewhereans isn't just a story about George and Ammu Thomas. It's a narrative that encompasses cities, continents, objects and war that displaced people on either sides. The read is difficult to get into, but once you sink your teeth into it, its eerie haunting nature never leaves your side. In the rarest of rare times, Thayil rolls out dry humour in his slick, signature style sometimes diffusing the melancholic nature imbibed by the novel.

Leafing through this book, feels like you have taken a vow of secrecy for intruding in someone's life, sieving through their most precious memories.

”I'm certain that those who had lived and died underground are still there, peaceably waiting, avoiding certain corridors at certain times of day...”

[Nirbhay Kanoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Jeet Thayil's work has always been an experience. The Elsewhereans is probably his most exciting (and challenging) novel to date. It is superb, sublime, scintillating, and all the possible superlative adjectives one can attach to it.

As a reader, you are lost at times - Thayil makes you work - but the joy you derive from that is unparalleled. Not only is the novel genre-blending but the writing, the narrative style, and the timelines are constantly shifting and changing, and you're grappling to cope, but when the aha moments happen, they're pure bliss.

From a technical standpoint, Thayil is a master of his work. The use of language and technique is unique. His sardonic wit is on full display, and every scene is the book is so evocative that you can't help but be transported to the setting. A 1960s wedding feast - I was there wearing a lungi and eating fish curry. I was hanging with Vietnamese farmers. I was in Hong Kong when it went from being British to Chinese.

This book is about displacement, about grief, about incompletion and about a breakdown of relationships, and I felt every single emotion Thayil wanted me to feel. I wouldn't be lying if I said this was my favourite book of 2025 (so far).

[Mahi Aggarwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Elsewhereans" by Jeet Thayil

I don’t know how to put this into neat sentences. Because "The Elsewhereans" isn’t a neat book. It’s messy in the most honest way—like real memory, like grief, like trying to make sense of where you come from and where you’re going.

I didn’t read it in one go. I kept pausing—not because it was hard to read, but because it made me feel things I wasn’t always ready to feel. The ache of people leaving. The silence they leave behind. The question that keeps echoing: Where do I truly belong?

Author writes like someone who’s lived many lives, who’s carried stories in his chest for too long. There are ghosts in this book—some real, some made of memory—and every city he touches feels haunted by something lost. It’s not just about people who leave, it’s also about what they carry with them, and what they never get to return to.

It doesn’t follow a straight path. But that’s the point, I think. Identity isn’t a straight path either. It wanders. It remembers.

This book left me quiet. Not sad, just full. Like I’ve brushed up against something raw and real.
And honestly, I’ll be carrying it around for a while.

[Craartology · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a book! ❤️

I don't read Jeet Thayil for a regular, linear plot, it's always the abruptness that makes me love his work. Beautifully blending timelines, places and generations.

Exploring themes of love, loss, identity, a sense of abandonment and "home", Thayil has crafted a family saga that is nothing short of an adventure with travels and life lived in Kerala, Bombay, Hongkong, Vietnam, Patna, Bangalore and New York. As these places map their lives, they cleverly define the impacts of society through instances like war, its after effects, a pandemic, isolation, cultural conflicts and the omnipresent racism of the West.

The Elsewhereans is wise, witty and a stellar piece of work for those who can read between the lines, with well crafted characters and a continuously changing landscape. To live up to its persona of a documentary novel there are stunning photographs that make it cohesive.
Read this book for its exaggerated extravagance which occasionally feels restrained. Devour this with the curiosity of an explorer you surely won't regret it.

Loved it. ❤️

[Bindu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Elsewhereans is Jeet Thayil at his most expansive and elusive a novel that slips effortlessly between forms, fusing fiction with memoir, travelogue, family history, a ghostly presence and visual fragments. It is a narrative that refuses boundaries, much like the lives it portrays.

Set across multiple geographies and timeframes, the book journeys from Kerala’s backwaters to Bombay’s shifting streets, and further on to cities like Hong Kong and Paris. Along the way, it captures lives shaped by movement and absence, by the ache of leaving and the quiet endurance of those left behind.

More than a story of migration, The Elsewhereans is a haunting reflection on memory, inheritance and the fragile construction of identity. It mourns lost worlds while attempting to reclaim them through storytelling, turning the act of remembering into one of reinvention. Lyrical, layered and deeply introspective, the novel affirms Thayil’s place as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary literature.

[Sheetal Bahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book, and quite "genre-defying" as the blurb says. It's autobiographical, a travel book, a social commentary, and some more. It's also very atmospheric and intimate and tender, rooted in real-life experiences of the author's family and others. But it started feeling very tedious early on, in the sense of being a lot more of the same. I tried to break it up, reading only a couple of chapters a day, but still struggled a lot in the second part of the book and it was quite an effort to complete it. I would still recommending reading it, but in a different way - pick it up from time-to-time and treat is as a collection of short stories - I think that should do the trick.

[Ivano Canteri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply stunning. Great writing. Magnificent portraits. Never so real landscapes of epochs, places, cities and facts. If you happen to read whilst in Kerala (or in Vietnam), this counts for a non plus ultra of the literary experience. Master of writing through choral snapshots (seems contradictory I know but that's how Thayil writes) and stupendous respects for his characters. The last page is a masterpiece of emotion in itself. Don't know what to add.

[Rinki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeet Thayil's novel, The Elsewhereans, is a captivating blend of genres that resists straightforward classification, seamlessly merging reality and fantasy, chaos and order, and bringing together philosophy, politics, poetry, and popular culture in a world where Thayil's sharp, witty, and energetic prose provokes thought and entertains.

[Rajlakshmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the end, it’s always the memory of all the places and spaces which remained in us that makes up “home.” That beautiful summary of all the rooms in all of Ammu’s houses that she has set up for herself becomes her home. But she returns to the river with all of these homes-the river that flows into the sea, which joins the ocean. She was an Elsewherean, after all.

What a beautiful read!

[Naveen Raju · Rating 5 out of 5]

I travelled the world through Jeet Thayil’s Elsewhereans and loved every moment of it. The book is a moving tribute to his parents and to the life they built as a family—at once rooted in their origins and yet distantly removed—before coming full circle in Kerala.

[Soumitro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A portrait of a family, intimate and nebulous, spanned across continents and decades, nuanced and spare, a wonderful read :)

[Kartik Chauhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary, ambitious and so incredibly heartbreaking-heartwarming all at once.

[Anand Nettikadan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book, an amazing end to it.

[Vaishnavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel in stories that breathes till the last page. Stories about elsewhereans for elsewhereans. Compulsively readable. Thayil is a great storyteller.

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genreless and a masterclass in experimental writing. Every setting (Hong Kong, Kerala, Vietnam, Bangalore) is written about from the perspective of a local, a seasoned observer - love it

[Tanisha Mehta Sagoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mesmerising vignettes exploring identity and belonging.