Home and the World

This genre-defying novel elegantly melds memoir, travelogue and fiction

- Bhaskar Roy IS THE AUTHOR, MOST RECENTLY, OF THE NOVEL, BORDER CROSSERS

ONE night in late November I cross the under-repair bridge on a nameless river—might be an ingress of the Arabian Sea—inhaling hyacinth-layered dark water on my way to Poornathrayeesa Temple to breathe in the verve of the annual festival. Seven caparisoned elephants in a row mildly swing their trunks to the tune of the large resonant bell and beats of the chenda drum. Burnt ghee from the glowing diyas hangs thick in the air around. In an upstairs hall, lavishly painted Kathakali performers are waiting for the classical singer to end his recital. The god here definitely has a baroque grandeur, a flair for extravagance. And as if to lend colour to the deity's majesty, well-turned-out boys and girls look for lonely corners to get lost in closer moments.

In Kerala, you are indeed never further from God, love and rivers wherever you go. This truth keeps coming as a refrain as you turn the pages of The Elsewhereans—Jeet Thayil’s deeply engaging family saga. Being faithful to the characters inhabiting the narrative, he has preferred to call his latest work a documentary novel. Impervious to semantics, The Elsewhereans still makes an important point: the best fiction always comes out of the author’s life.