Drown All the Refugees

by Tabish Khair

At a literary event, when the narrator screams, 'Drown all the refugees,' he means every word. After all, he is all too familiar with displacement - his boyfriend Abdul was Palestinian; and his childhood best friend Pedro crossed India's borders illegally in search of a better life.

Neither Abdul nor Pedro can return - for Abdul is dead and Pedro's whereabouts are now a mystery. That is, until Maria, the narrator's childhood nurse and Pedro's mother, turns to the occult to bring back her son. The person she recovers is not her exuberant young boy, but someone who is a husk of himself. What happened to Pedro during his journey to a distant land, or his passage back?

As the narrator tries to answer this question, he sees that every revelation holds both violence and terror. A work of Gothic horror, with exquisite illustrations by Vikram Nayak, Drown All the Refugees is Khair at his finest - assured and outraged. He rejects the reader's pity, the onlooker's distress, and asks instead for something more substantial, perhaps a reordering of a world in disarray.

227 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 17, 2026

About the author

Tabish Khair was born and educated in Bihar, India. He worked in Delhi as a Staff Reporter until his late twenties and is now a professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. Winner of the All India Poetry Prize, his novels have been shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize (Hong Kong), the Hindu Best Fiction Prize and the Crossword Vodafone Literature Awards (India), the Encore Award (UK) and for translation prizes in Denmark and France.

Reviews

[bookswithkinkita]

After watching the film Main Vaapas Aaunga, I got another powerful narrative that profoundly impacted me, Drown All the Refugees.

This book takes you on a poignant journey, confronting the harrowing experience of leaving everything behind, crossing borders, and the search for a life. It raises the question of whether that life will be an improvement or simply a continuation of struggle.

The book created a lingering sense of unease within me. It forced me to reflect on how easily society has come to normalize terms like refugee, border, and migration, reducing them to mere headlines that often detach the humanity behind each story. As I delved deeper into its pages, I realized I was no longer reading about them, the faceless statistics or distant individuals living through crises but rather about us. It became a mirror, challenging my perceptions and making me recognize the shared humanity that connects us all.

When I finally closed the book, I found myself grappling with more questions than I had when I began.Some stories are not crafted to provide comfort or resolution; instead, they are designed to disturb our equanimity just enough to keep the realities of these journeys alive in our minds.

[Archana Ashok]

"The Midwife's hut, which was a bit off the closest village, was in a stretch of land that was too rocky and barren to be claimed by any plantation or farmer. It was simply called 'the forest', a tangle of shrubbery and rocks about two kilometres in length; sometimes villagers went there to forage or hunt."

The book 'Drown All The Refugees' by Tabish Khair was a breathtaking book for me. I have read stories about migration and immigration before, but this book gave a whole new perspective to life. Everyday we hear a lot of people crossing the borders, hoping for a better future.

"In Americas vast, almost empty landscapes or endless fields with the same crop, some of the aged folk I encounter bubble out, like forgotten children of the corn, and you can see that they have been damaged beyond repair."

Well, it's not just another boy crossing borders. Pedro's story indeed gave me goosebumps. There were a lot of twists and turns, and made the story engaging. The writing was very eloquent, and I definitely urge you to read this.

[Mili Das]

In Tabish Khair 's world everyone is refugee, it's a devastating exploration of the darkest side of humanity. This book has layers, seamlessly unfolded the meaning of the word "Refugee", it's not just one perspective, it goes deeper against the typical meaning and carries a message that is deeply human, disturbing and moving.

It is a thought provoking book, each of us refuge in our own way, looking for a ground of love, peace and clarity. Talking about Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan, Israel, people who once had home but now they are labelled as Refugee. What is happening with them, how's life treating them differently, crushing them, we read about these everyday in news. Tabish Khair tried to connect with them through this book, dig out deep inside feelings of horror and the sense of belonging yet nowhere to belong, they just drowned.

In poetic language it evokes searing pain. It painted picture of wordless pain, the pain of rootless people who are floating around the world trying to hold a ground.

An absolutely devastating experience written with stunning writing, brilliant exploration. I didn't like his previous book but this book is masterpiece.



Wait for detail review on my blog.

[Bindu]

This is not an easy book to read, but it's certainly one that stays with you. Blending literary fiction with unsettling, almost dreamlike elements, the story explores displacement, grief, identity, and the lasting scars left by violence in deeply affecting ways.

What stood out to me was how the author uses the unusual and the unsettling to examine very real human experiences. Rather than offering simple answers, the narrative asks difficult questions about belonging, loss, memory, and the cost of survival.

The writing is atmospheric and evocative, creating a sense of unease that lingers throughout. I appreciated how the emotional depth remains at the centre of the story, making it as thought-provoking as it is haunting.

If you enjoy literary fiction that challenges perspectives, embraces darker themes, and stays with you long after you've finished reading, this is a compelling and unforgettable read.

[Aparna Prabhu]

”It is a deeply personal story, and that is why it can be completely universal in similar worlds.”

- Tabish Khair, Drown all the Refugees

The story starts with a narrator pining for a conversation with a known person yet unknown to the readers. They wish to see them again even though the person in picture has forgotten the narrator's face. The illustrations in the book have been sketched thoughtfully.

’Drown all the Refugees’ by Tabish Khair blends occult, gothic horror and the supernatural to portray the migration crisis. Khair's writing is powerful and he conveys it by baring his heart and soul. Through Abdul (deceased) Pedro and Maries' point of view, he means every single word that screams orderly arrangement of a world that is in disarray.

”This, of course, is what makes stories so beautiful and deadly, so powerful—they always say more, and less, than what the author intends. ”

[Pavitra (For The Love of Fictional Worlds)]

I don't know how we came to this point; but we did. We came to a point where somehow the words such as 'refugees' 'immigrants' and the why behind those words just became a part of our lives just like the headlines of a news story that we read and forget. That it has become so easy to detach ourselves until the story becomes your reality.

And why is that exactly? Why do we need to make everything personal before it becomes real? why does pain, hurt, loss need to be felt personally before we can respect the experience of others. Where did, we humans as a race, as a community lose ourselves that we can't even begin empathise with each other? How did as human beings fracture to this extent?

I don'[t know what you all are reading, but Drown by Refugees by Tabish Khair is a book that you *NEED* to read. You need to become uncomfortable with our complacency and our apathy.

[Maitrayee]

Tonally inconsistent, and the suspense could have been built up more. The parallel between the parables of The Midwife and Dukhe Baba and the international refugee crisis although well-thought of, could have been pursued more than just as a rhetorical strategy. Still a fun read.