Immigrant, Montana

2020 Longlist

Carrying a single suitcase, Kailash arrives in post-Reagan America from India to attend graduate school. As he begins to settle into American existence, Kailash comes under the indelible influence of a charismatic professor, and also finds his life reshaped by a series of very different women with whom he recklessly falls in and out of love.

Looking back on the formative period of his youth, Kailash’s wry, vivid perception of the world he is in, but never quite of, unfurls in a brilliant melding of anecdote and annotation, picture and text. Building a case for himself, both as a good man in spite of his flaws and as an American in defiance of his place of birth, Kailash weaves a story that is at its core an incandescent investigation of love – despite, beyond, and across dividing lines.

About the Author

Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist. He was born in Ara, and grew up in Patna. He has written several books of nonfiction and a novel. He is Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College. In 2016, Amitava Kumar was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (General Nonfiction) and a Ford Fellowship in Literature.

Librarian’s Comments

A meditative novel, quasi memoir and a coming of age tale of an immigrant college student told with beauty and style. It’s not the usual immigrant story but somehow it’s not very different either in terms of plot and experience. What’s unique about this perspective is its poetic cadence and cerebral sensibility. Ferguson Library, USA