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Freedom at novels’ heart
FIONA O’CONNOR recommends two novels telling of real contemporary experiences that question the nature of liberty and fraternity in present times
The Trans-Siberian stops at Omsk

Down with the Poor!
By Shumona Sinha
LesFugitives Press, £12.99

 


Eastbound
By Maylis de Kerangal
LesFugitives Press, £10.99
 

 


SHUMONA Sinha’s Down with the Poor! translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan, sets up a complex and perplexing position on south Asian immigration to France.

The first-person narrative belongs to a young Indian woman, a translator at asylum appeal hearings in Paris. She is spending the night in police cells having smashed a bottle over a man’s head — an asylum-seeker.

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