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The Nowhere Man
The Nowhere Man is an intricate, perceptive tragedy of alienation centered around the violent racism sparked by Britain’s post-war immigration drive. Srinivas, an elderly Brahmin, has been living in south London suburb for 30 years. After the death of his son, and later his wife, this lonely man is befriended by an Englishwoman in her sixties, whom he takes into his home. The two form a deep and abiding relationship. But the haven they have created for themselves proves to be a fragile one. Racist violence enters their world and Srinivas’s life changes irrevocably—as does his dream of England as a country of tolerance and equality. First published in 1972, The Nowhere Man depicts a London convulsed by fear and bitterness. Truly shocking, The Nowhere Man is as relevant today as when it was first published almost 50 years ago.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
17 people are currently reading
405 people want to read
About the author
Kamala Markandaya
19 books112 followersPseudonym used by Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, an Indian novelist and journalist. A native of Mysore, India, Markandaya was a graduate of Madras University, and afterward published several short stories in Indian newspapers. After India declared its independence, Markandaya moved to Britain, though she still labeled herself an Indian expatriate long afterward.
Known for writing about culture clash between Indian urban and rural societies, Markandaya's first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve, was a bestseller and cited as an American Library Association Notable Book in 1955. Other novels include Some Inner Fury (1955), A Silence of Desire (1960), Possession (1963), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Nowhere Man (1972), Two Virgins (1973), The Golden Honeycomb (1977), and Pleasure City (1982/1983).
Kamala Markandaya belonged to that pioneering group of Indian women writers who made their mark not just through their subject matter, but also through their fluid, polished literary style. Nectar in a Sieve was her first published work, and its depiction of rural India and the suffering of farmers made it popular in the West. This was followed by other fiction that dramatized the Quit India movement in 1942, the clash between East and West and the tragedy that resulted from it, or the problems facing ordinary middle-class Indians—making a living, finding inner peace, coping with modern technology and its effects on the poor.
Known for writing about culture clash between Indian urban and rural societies, Markandaya's first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve, was a bestseller and cited as an American Library Association Notable Book in 1955. Other novels include Some Inner Fury (1955), A Silence of Desire (1960), Possession (1963), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Nowhere Man (1972), Two Virgins (1973), The Golden Honeycomb (1977), and Pleasure City (1982/1983).
Kamala Markandaya belonged to that pioneering group of Indian women writers who made their mark not just through their subject matter, but also through their fluid, polished literary style. Nectar in a Sieve was her first published work, and its depiction of rural India and the suffering of farmers made it popular in the West. This was followed by other fiction that dramatized the Quit India movement in 1942, the clash between East and West and the tragedy that resulted from it, or the problems facing ordinary middle-class Indians—making a living, finding inner peace, coping with modern technology and its effects on the poor.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 29, 2019
Novel set in SOUTH LONDON 1968 (and INDIA)
The author wrote this novel in the early 1970s but it never reached the critical acclaim that her debut novel A Handful of Rice did. The Nowhere Man was, however, her own personal favourite of all the books she wrote.
The book is set against the backdrop of the later 1960s and against Enoch Powell’s notorious Rivers of Blood speech (20 April 1968) which stoked racism, causing an unprecedented increase in hate and upsetting the equilibrium that Srinivas, the protagonist, has managed to establish. Srinvias arrived optimistically in Britain from India, anticipating a good and uneventful life.
Srinivas has settled in a leafy South London suburb. He has built a home together with his wife Vasantha, producing two boys. One has since died and the other has moved to the South Coast, harbouring a sense of shame when it comes to his parents’ set up.
Vasantha passes away and Srinivas enters a new phase of life. Mrs Pickering, who is down on her luck, moves in with him – theirs is a relationship of convenience, both of them living pretty harmoniously under the same roof, sharing food and company and just quietly getting on with everyday life. But attitudes around him are changing and finding dark expression.
Flashbacks to India set the scene for his departure from his homeland. Life there under British rule is depicted as a pretty toxic experience for many within the indigenous communities and this theme is something that the author explored in her novels time and again.
Srinivas is portrayed as a sanguine man who takes a lot in his stride. The pace of the novel is taut, with an overriding gentleness which becomes more poignant as circumstances change and come to a head. A pertinent and prescient read in today’s political climate. The prose is elegant and thoughtful.
Kamala Markandaya ‘told India’s tales to the world and beyond, and brought a young new nation into the global literary conversation‘ (Manu S Pillai)
The author wrote this novel in the early 1970s but it never reached the critical acclaim that her debut novel A Handful of Rice did. The Nowhere Man was, however, her own personal favourite of all the books she wrote.
The book is set against the backdrop of the later 1960s and against Enoch Powell’s notorious Rivers of Blood speech (20 April 1968) which stoked racism, causing an unprecedented increase in hate and upsetting the equilibrium that Srinivas, the protagonist, has managed to establish. Srinvias arrived optimistically in Britain from India, anticipating a good and uneventful life.
Srinivas has settled in a leafy South London suburb. He has built a home together with his wife Vasantha, producing two boys. One has since died and the other has moved to the South Coast, harbouring a sense of shame when it comes to his parents’ set up.
Vasantha passes away and Srinivas enters a new phase of life. Mrs Pickering, who is down on her luck, moves in with him – theirs is a relationship of convenience, both of them living pretty harmoniously under the same roof, sharing food and company and just quietly getting on with everyday life. But attitudes around him are changing and finding dark expression.
Flashbacks to India set the scene for his departure from his homeland. Life there under British rule is depicted as a pretty toxic experience for many within the indigenous communities and this theme is something that the author explored in her novels time and again.
Srinivas is portrayed as a sanguine man who takes a lot in his stride. The pace of the novel is taut, with an overriding gentleness which becomes more poignant as circumstances change and come to a head. A pertinent and prescient read in today’s political climate. The prose is elegant and thoughtful.
Kamala Markandaya ‘told India’s tales to the world and beyond, and brought a young new nation into the global literary conversation‘ (Manu S Pillai)
August 2, 2022
This curious novel studies the premise of East-West encounter through individual associations and occurrences. Its fundamental figures are ‘nowhere men’ -- Indian émigrés in England who belong neither to India nor to England. The novel thus also is a psychological reading in the problems of estrangement and peripatetic enigma. Srinivas and his wife, Vasantha, the moderately archetypal Indian migrants, carrying Indian customs, dress and principles to an unfamiliar land and living quietly but without in any way incorporating the culture of their assumed land, form the nub of the storyline. The handful of Indian soil and the bottle of Ganga water cherished by Vasantha are both practical and representational. Vasantha lives rooted in Indian values and lifestyle, and the drops of Ganga water sprinkled on her ashes make, for her, Ganga of the Thames. But for Srinivas and his son, Laxman, there is no Indian soil, no Ganga water. They are the nowhere men.
You can give it a try. A tad dated, but enjoyable.
You can give it a try. A tad dated, but enjoyable.
February 22, 2024
(read for uni)
review to come <3
rating as of 22/02/2024: 4 stars
review to come <3
rating as of 22/02/2024: 4 stars
April 6, 2024
This novel published in 1972 and set mainly in 1968 is shockingly relevant to British society today with its themes of immigration and racism.
In 1968 we meet Srinivas, an elderly Brahmin who left India thirty years previously to start a new life and raise a family in Enlightened Britain.
No longer feeling like he belongs in India but gradually finding that he's not fully accepted in England he's one of the Nowhere Men.
It's a sad novel. It starts with Srinivas visiting a doctor and learning of his illness before we get flashbacks to his years in London, the war time death of his younger son, the gradual estrangement of his elder son in a brilliant piece of writing spotlighting the feelings of a second generation immigrant, and the loss of his beloved wife Vasantha leading to a spiral of depression.
There's also a flashback to early life in India showing like under colonial rule that leads to the decision to emigrate.
But it's not all doom and gloom as a chance meeting with divorced Englishwoman Mrs Pickering leads to a new love and a gentle life together.
The post-war economy and influx of immigrants leads to a change in society and the dream of a tolerant country is shattered as racism rears its head.
The unemployed son of one of Srinivas' neighbours, Fred, becomes a local ringleader for increasingly violent racist acts. In his mind, Srinivas represents all his woes and the novel leads inexorably to shocking events.
It's a powerful piece of writing and deserves a wide audience.
In 1968 we meet Srinivas, an elderly Brahmin who left India thirty years previously to start a new life and raise a family in Enlightened Britain.
No longer feeling like he belongs in India but gradually finding that he's not fully accepted in England he's one of the Nowhere Men.
It's a sad novel. It starts with Srinivas visiting a doctor and learning of his illness before we get flashbacks to his years in London, the war time death of his younger son, the gradual estrangement of his elder son in a brilliant piece of writing spotlighting the feelings of a second generation immigrant, and the loss of his beloved wife Vasantha leading to a spiral of depression.
There's also a flashback to early life in India showing like under colonial rule that leads to the decision to emigrate.
But it's not all doom and gloom as a chance meeting with divorced Englishwoman Mrs Pickering leads to a new love and a gentle life together.
The post-war economy and influx of immigrants leads to a change in society and the dream of a tolerant country is shattered as racism rears its head.
The unemployed son of one of Srinivas' neighbours, Fred, becomes a local ringleader for increasingly violent racist acts. In his mind, Srinivas represents all his woes and the novel leads inexorably to shocking events.
It's a powerful piece of writing and deserves a wide audience.
September 13, 2025
Cruel and shocking but true to life now as it was late 60s. Very hard to read both for the subject matter and the literary style.
December 9, 2015
The Nowhere Man was the second book by Kamala Markandaya that I've read. I read herNectar in a Sieve a decade and a half ago, which I really enjoyed reading, and I'd always been curious about her other works. I'm disappointed to say that this wasn't as good a novel. The plot is simple enough and easy to follow. But the narration is unnecessarily complicated by endless descriptive passages, which take away from the straightforward nature of the story.
There were a few chapters in the 'flashback' portion of The Nowhere Man, which I thought were very well written. They too have long, descriptive passages, but they seem more to the point. Perhaps the clue to why this disparity exists lies in the fact that the flashback chapters consist of descriptions of the life of the protagonist, Srinivas, in India. According to the Goodreads author biography, Markandaya labelled herself an 'expatriate Indian' long after moving to England in the post-Independence era; maybe she did a better job of describing India because she missed home, much like Srinivas does, quietly, yet palpably. This is, however, just a surmise.
I struggled between giving this book a three and a four star rating. Ultimately, those India chapters were too compelling too not give The Nowhere Man four stars.
There were a few chapters in the 'flashback' portion of The Nowhere Man, which I thought were very well written. They too have long, descriptive passages, but they seem more to the point. Perhaps the clue to why this disparity exists lies in the fact that the flashback chapters consist of descriptions of the life of the protagonist, Srinivas, in India. According to the Goodreads author biography, Markandaya labelled herself an 'expatriate Indian' long after moving to England in the post-Independence era; maybe she did a better job of describing India because she missed home, much like Srinivas does, quietly, yet palpably. This is, however, just a surmise.
I struggled between giving this book a three and a four star rating. Ultimately, those India chapters were too compelling too not give The Nowhere Man four stars.
March 16, 2021
I picked this one up by chance at the library. I'm so glad I did and I had the opportunity to discover this book. I'm not sure where to begin; touching, tender, sad, and still as shocking as when it came out in the 1970's. The charcters are well developed and I found I really cared for the two main characters, Sirinvias and Mrs Pickering and their journey and experiences with each other. A study of racism and 'othering' by society and the struggle to belong which is still so relevant today for many. All I can say is please read this book. More people should know about and read this novel.
February 26, 2023
Think this novel is pretty underrated. And it was interesting to read something written in the seventies about this.
I liked that the novel introduces you to Srinivas in England, before going back to India. So you don't have extra context compared to his neighbours who didn't ask about life before
Great writing after Srinivas' wife has died and he's alone in London: "that period, for Srinivas, was a dust bowl of being. Empty. Without meaning. Scooped out, picked clean, no climbing up from the slippery sides."
I liked that the novel introduces you to Srinivas in England, before going back to India. So you don't have extra context compared to his neighbours who didn't ask about life before
Great writing after Srinivas' wife has died and he's alone in London: "that period, for Srinivas, was a dust bowl of being. Empty. Without meaning. Scooped out, picked clean, no climbing up from the slippery sides."
June 8, 2021
A moving story of the life of an Indian man in England in the mid 20th century, with themes of racism and generational problems. The characters are engaging and believable but the writing in parts tips over into too much symbolism. I felt the book would have been more powerful if more simply written.
March 10, 2025
‘they were heavy from the years’ accretions, layer upon layer, the animations reaching she felt, into her soul’
‘the ability to forgive while remembering, a sweetness that consumed the meaner human streaks’
October 28, 2025
I love the course thats making me read books like these sm like ooooh this book is so goated... i was so overly enthusiastic talking about how well written this book is and how well all the themes fit together and nobody g that much of af like me..... it is truly soso good....
Want to read
September 28, 2020A review- https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/int...
March 30, 2025
An elderly Brahmin has been living in South London for 30 years. But times change and racial violence becomes a way of life.
August 16, 2025
Obviously a difficult one for me. But like most of Markandaya's work, thoroughly worth it.
February 8, 2025
read this for uni. this book has stayed shockingly relevant. i loved the narrative but the writing style was not my fave
October 3, 2024
Re-reading before I start writing on it! Not a word wasted in all its 370 odd pages. Markandaya’s syntax is so refreshing and the text’s maintained relevance is striking.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews