The Outsiders - by Devi Yesodharan (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

For some people, home is nowhere. They feel out of place--they are adrift, the stranger in the crowd. It's as if they are forever walking around in shoes that don't fit.

Can they find a home, imperfect as it may be? Sometimes, all it takes is a place at the other end of the world--or a person. Nita, a teacher in Kerala, is desperate for a better-paying job and accepts one in Dubai. It is the 1990s, and Dubai is just becoming a boom town. Everything is changing. But Nita struggles to adjust to the city as an immigrant. Her job as a live-in tutor for a young girl puts her in an unfamiliar, servile role with a wealthy family. Nita starts telling the child's mother a story from ancient India, where Darius, a sailor, arrives at an Indian port seeking his fortune. As she tells this tale, making it up as she goes, she finds that she's no longer alone.

This is a two-headed story--the narrators Nita and Darius are nested inside each other like Russian dolls. They are both outsiders in unfamiliar places. They make dangerous choices that take them to the breaking point. And as Nita feels her safety unravel, it does for Darius as well.

Review Quotes

An exquisite exploration of love, loneliness and the migrant experience, The Outsiders is at once a heart-wrenching and compelling read.-- "Kiran Manral, bestselling author"

Devi Yesodharan's The Outsiders expertly builds its two worlds--separated by almost two millennia and an ocean--to create a narrative braid that is as lashing as it is enthralling. Hopes of sustenance compel human migration, and to accept being an outsider is harsh business, but Yesodharan's novel illustrates that even in atmospheres of injunction, prohibition and looming violence, desire and choice do get to have their say.-- "Tanuj Solanki, author of Manjhi's Mayhem and The Machine Is Learning"

About the Author

Devi Yesodharan has been an itinerant all her life, living in various cities across the Middle East and India before settling in Bangalore, her favourite place. She is the author of Empire (2017), which was longlisted for the JCB Prize and the Tata Lit Live! First Book Award. Devi has previously worked as a speechwriter for Narayana Murthy and on Imagining India, Nandan Nilekani's first book.