Book Summary and Reviews of Foreign by Sonora Jha

Book Summary

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.