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Outcaste

By (author): Sheila James

An epic tale that spans fifty years, four generations, and two continents.

Perched out of sight in a tree beside the road, Malika, a communist resistance fighter, prepares to assassinate the new governor in a village in the recently independent India. As she prepares to shoot, she recognizes the man riding in the car and hesitates.

The man is Rayappa, who Malika had first met five years earlier in the village of Korampally. Both were deemed “untouchables”. Yet, Malika toiled as a servant in a landowner’s household while Rayappa worked for a visiting anthropologist.

Fifty years later, Rayappa, now living in Canada as Irwin Peter, receives a letter asking for information about Malika. When he decides to return to India with his family, he is forced to revisit Korampally’s turbulent history — and his own. The lingering legacy of the caste system, the brutal invasion of the kingdom of Hyderabad by the nascent Indian state, and the encounter between Irwin and Malika would all have profound consequences.

A brilliant, complex novel, Outcaste radiates with an unquenchable life-force. Shimmering with emotional depth and crackling with vibrancy, Outcaste revisits a complex period in India’s history while imbuing ordinary lives with extraordinarily dramatic dimensions.

AUTHOR

Sheila James

Sheila James was born in England and raised in Nova Scotia. Trained in music, she has performed and composed for stage and various media. She has released a recording of original children’s songs, Radio K.I.D.S. Her performance art character and alter ego, Jimmy Susheel, has graced the stage of many festivals from Desh Pardesh (Toronto) to Women in View (Vancouver). Inspired by art and social justice, James has facilitated numerous “theatre of the oppressed” workshops. She has founded two community arts theatre groups: The Rice Girls and Stree Theatre. She has written several stage plays, including All Whispers / No Words and A Canadian Monsoon, which were produced by Company of Sirens, the latter in association with Theatre Passe Muraille. She has created and collaborated on four videos: She’s a Diva, Unmapping Desire, Lakme Takes Flight and Orphan Dyke, and authored one screenplay, Erased, which have all been screened internationally to acclaim. The award-winning Unmapping Desire has been translated into French and German and broadcast by ZDF in Europe. James’ poetry and short fiction have been published in various anthologies and journals. Sheila holds a BA (Honours) in Music from York University and an MFA in Creative Writing and Theatre from the University of British Columbia. She currently lives in Ottawa.

Reviews

Family secrets political intrigue and history come together in this compelling novel about Indias devastating caste system and long battle for independence from Britain
Winnipeg Free Press

With clearsighted empathy laced with irony James depicts an indifferently cruel world
Toronto Star

Outcaste is a deep layered and beautiful novel about a family and nation fractured by and freeing itself from colonization patriarchy and oppressive traditions The writing is masterful with James skillfully unspooling the storys secrets bit by bit This book will stay with me for a long time

Outcaste is a riveting immersive and sweeping novel filled with vivid descriptions and unforgettable characters Both epic and intimate this novel asks big questions about how we forge our futures and the ghosts we leave behind I fell in love with these characters and learned about a chapter in Indian history about which I knew nothing A powerful and absorbing read

In Outcaste Sheila James has delivered a profound novel that explores the contradictions of faith cruelties of politics and longlasting ramifications of Indias caste system Memories and secrets are passed down from one generation to the next and woven into the fabric of historical events creating a rich tapestry where ordinary yet unforgettable women cheat fate and circumstance to choose what their futures will hold A moving story of hopelessly tangled family dynamics held together by reckless hope

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Details

Dimensions:

320 Pages

506gr0.75in6in * 9in

Published:

May 07, 2024

Publisher:

Goose Lane Editions

ISBN:

9781773103020

Book Subjects:

FICTION / Literary

Language:

01

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Outcaste

By (author): Sheila James