Brown Man in White Light: An Immigrant Romance

Deben Roy

—Mary O’Connell, author of The Sharp Time and Dear Reader

In fine, empathetic prose Roy brings to life the inner world of Robi Sen, an Indian-American professor at Iowa, as he navigates the many nuances of double-identity—immigrant/exile, husband/ lover—while traversing the familiar-unfamiliar terrains of love, memory, and loss. Breaking new ground in Indian-American writing in its examination of the peculiar and suspended world of the man in the middle—neither rootless nor at home, neither fully integrated nor an outcast—this book is as insightful in its politics as it is redeeming in its final analysis of the wry talents of the human spirit to grasp at, and find, meaning and even happiness in the new world. I loved it.

—Devapriya Roy, author of The Vague Woman’s Handbook and Friends from College

The great Indian American immigrant novel has been written: this is it. First-generation Indian Americans like me came to the USA for graduate school in growing numbers only after 1965, but their stories are rarely told, much less with such empathy, insight, and skill. The book’s protagonist does not seem conjured or made up; his inner life felt real as if informed and inspired by lived experiences of academia, dating, racial profiling, microaggressions, and loss. We come to inhabit his world and gain new perspectives on otherwise familiar topics, places, and cultures. The plot unfolds slowly towards a climax and then ebbs; the characters stay with you long after you turn the last page.

—Arvind Kumar, Founding Editor, India Currents