Foreign: A Novel

by Sonora Jha

The debut novel by the author of the critically acclaimed The Laughter, published in North America for the first time—the story of a mother who travels back to her home country of India to bring back her runaway son, and discovers anew the surprise and crises of the place she left behind.
Foreign begins in a small Indian village, where a desperate farmer, Bajirao Andhale, browbeaten by political strife and circumstance, contemplates whether he can go on with his life. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Katya Misra is celebrating in Seattle. She leads a carefully constructed, successful academic life and has an adolescent son, Kabir. One evening, Katya is informed that her son has run away to a village in India. She soon realizes that Kabir wants to find his father, whom he has never met before.
Contemptuous of her mother country, Katya is determined to bring her son back to the US, whatever the cost. She finds Kabir in a village gripped by an epidemic of farmers taking their lives, faced with the cruelties of climate and corruption. Katya and Kabir are taken in by the family of one such troubled farmer, Bajirao. Kabir, it turns out, has become inspired by his father, who is deeply involved in the village with his lofty ideals of selfless social work. Nevertheless, Katya sticks to her plan to take Kabir back to America. She finds an ally in Gayatri Bai, the farmer’s wife. The two women strike a deal with each other - Gayatri Bai saves Kabir’s life and asks for Katya’s help in stopping her husband from taking his life. Kabir and Katya find that their lives have now become intertwined with the fate of the farmer. How will their relationship evolve now that they see themselves in light of others’ struggles—what will each of them risk and what will they learn? Who is foreign, who yearns to belong, and who must get out of the way?
Foreign is an engrossing, page-turning depiction of contemporary India that will remind readers of such enduring works as Thrity Umrigar’s The Space Between Us, Neel Mukherjee’s The Lives of Others, and Megha Majumdar’s A Burning

304 pages, Paperback

Expected publication October 13, 2026

About the author

Sonora Jha is the author of The Laughter (Harper Via 2023), winner of the 2024 Washington Book Award for Fiction and the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son: Motherhood, Masculinity, and the Making of My Family, published in the U.S., Germany, Brazil, and by Penguin Random House India in 2021. She also wrote the novel Foreign (Random House India, 2013), which tells the stories of farmers' suicides in India. Foreign was a finalist for The Hindu Prize for Fiction, The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, and was longlisted for the DSC Prize. Sonora grew up in Mumbai and was chief of the metropolitan bureau for the Times of India in Bangalore and contributing editor for East magazine in Singapore before moving to the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in media and public affairs. Dr. Jha is a professor of journalism at Seattle University and her op-eds and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Seattle Times, The Establishment, DAME, and in several anthologies. She also teaches fiction and essay writing for Hugo House, Hedgebrook Writers’ Retreat, and Seattle Public Library. She is an alumna and board member of Hedgebrook Writers’ Retreat, and has served on the jury for awards for Artist Trust, Hedgebrook, and Hugo House. Her latest book is the novel Intemperance (Harper Via, 2025).