Book description
Longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, this is a superb second
novel from the author of the multiple-award winning 'Saraswati Park'.
Paris, London, Bombay: three cities form a backdrop to a journey
through Leela's twenties at the dawn of the new millennium, as she
learns to negotiate the world, work, relationships and sex, and find
some measure of authenticity.
Sharp, funny, and melancholy, Another Country brings a cool eye to
friendship, love, and the idea of belonging to a place or another
person. As with her debut, the Desmond Elliott Prize-winning Saraswati
Park, Anjali Joseph's beautiful, clear writing captures exactly the
anxieties of a young woman searching for her role in the world, and the
places in which she goes looking. 'Beautifully delineated…The writing
throughout is cool and clear, and whilst the overall tone of the novel
is hauntingly melancholic, it is also distinguished by a refreshingly
abrasive wit' Peter Parker, Sunday Times
'Joseph has an unerring instinct for detail that brings a scene to life
… Her descriptions … are gorgeously vivid' Sunday Telegraph
'Joseph's writing is rich and original. She can describe silences and
what is left unsaid between her characters just as well as she describes
what they do and say' Observer
'A readable and entertaining book' Guardian
'Joseph's eye for the myriad disappointments of young professional life
is excruciatingly accurate, especially in the London section… Joseph is
a skilled observer' Metro Anjali Joseph was born in Bombay in 1978.
She read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has taught English
at the Sorbonne, written for the Times of India in Bombay and been a
Commissioning Editor for ELLE (India). Her first novel, Saraswati Park,
won the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Prize, and the Vodafone
Crossword Award for best novel in India, and was shortlisted for the
Ondaatje Prize and a Commonwealth Prize. Another Country is her second
novel.
