Odysseus Abroad A novel

In Odysseus Abroad, Amit Chaudhuri charts a day in the life of two Indian men—a twenty-two-year-old student trying (and failing) at being a poet and his bachelor uncle, who has been living in genteel poverty for nearly three decades—as they explore London, the city they now call home.

A wistful and beguiling work of fiction, the novel follows nephew and uncle on one of their weekly forays about town, as they ruminate on their situations, the art of living, and each other. Marked by the same sensual richness that is a hallmark of all of Chaudhuri’s work, here is a charming yet candid look at the experiences of the outsider, the struggles of youth and loneliness, and the spiky, needful, sometimes comical, yet ultimately loving connection between two generations.

Amit Chaudhuri is the author of five previous novels, one work of nonfiction, and a number of books of literary criticism. His many honors include the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; most recently, he became the first recipient of the Infosys Prize for Humanities—Literary Studies. A contributor to the London Review of Books, Granta, and The Times Literary Supplement, he is currently professor of contemporary literature at the University of East Anglia and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is also an internationally acclaimed musician, and lives in Calcutta, India, and Norwich, England.