Book review: The Outsiders by Devi Yesodharan

Looking out, looking in

The migrant experience is explored through the perspective of two outsiders,  in this book. One is a teacher from Kerala who comes to Dubai in the 1990s scouting better prospects. The other is a sailor who reaches the fabled lost port of Muziris in 213 CE. Both these stories deal with the fragility and precarity of migrant life, and have love playing an important part. In a further twist, one of the stories is told by a character in the other.

Nita, a struggling widow and single mother, is compelled by economic circumstances to take up a job in Dubai. She joins a wealthy family in order to tutor a young girl. Gradually the dynamics of this particular family are revealed. The husband is an abusive, controlling man, his wife of Egyptian descent Rouhi, another outsider, the archetypal abused wife who stays in the marriage due to societal pressure and a lack of options.

Nita and Rouhi, both feeling alienated and alone, form a friendship which slowly turns into a relationship. Binaries of employer-employee, wife-widow, migrant-citizen are all dissolved in the force of desire. If, however, a woman has no real agency in a place like Dubai, a migrant has less; Nita,  thus, is about to reap the whirlwind.

The second story that runs parallel to what is happening concerns a sailor Darius of Egyptian descent out at sea, searching for Muziris. The port will be the setting for his coming of age, he will turn from a naive, melancholic young boy to a fatalistic worldly wise young man. Like Nita,  he too will fall in love, find himself deluded by that very love. And his decisions will have him reach a perilous point in his life.

Muziris and Dubai

The ancient harbour of Muziris is brought to life in wonderful detail. We are told of the multitudes of people there with different shades of skin, the various kinds of food on offer, the smells, the riotous colours, the trading as a way of life, the pepper responsible in large part for its prosperity,  and akin to gold. There is a sense of poignancy when the author hints at the fact that soon in the future this bustling, vibrant place will cease to exist.

In contrast,  Dubai is delineated with a cold gaze, a place where regulations are thin on the ground, where dirty money is welcomed and laundered; a soulless city where racism towards migrants is overt,  and earning big bucks the main driving force. For the migrant,  though, it is a land of opportunity, a means by which they can erase their past and transform their future.

At the end, both outsiders,  Nita and Darius, are left in a state of flux. One is deciding how long to stay on as a migrant. The other is home,  but longing to be elsewhere. Love has turned out to be as ephemeral for them as the port of Muziris.

This is an absorbing read and Devi Yesodharan an author to watch out for.

The Outsiders by Devi Yesodharan. Penguin Books. 254 pages.399 rupees

This review appeared in The Hindu`s Sunday Magazine of 7 April 2025.