The Immigrant
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Immigrant for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
'Kapur pierces the cooling heart of the relationship.' --Daily Telegraph
`Kapur explores the effect of a forced relationship and being so far from home.' -- The Times
`Kapur's novel persuasively explores the frustrations of a modern marriage.' --Sunday Times
`Kapur explores the effect of a forced relationship and being so far from home.' -- The Times
`Kapur's novel persuasively explores the frustrations of a modern marriage.' --Sunday Times
Book Description
A poignant, intimate and compelling new novel about starting anew and leaving the familiar behind, from the author of Home, A Married Woman and Difficult Daughters.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is actually the story not of one but of two immigrants from India, Nina and Ananda. But it is the vulnerable Nina with whom the author clearly sympathizes and with whom, I guess, she feels a sense of feminist sisterhood. Ananda has his own vulnerabilities and one has to feel sorry for him without ever liking him.
After the death of his parents, Ananda had gone to Halifax, Nova Scotia to work as a dentist. He had no intention of going back to live in India and wanted nothing more than to become a proper Canadian. We see the adjustments he had to make to life in Canada. He did quite well; but the one thing he did not seem to manage was to establish a relationship with a Canadian girl. Back in India, his sister was trying to find him a wife. A matchmaker put her in touch with Nina's mother.
Nina is an academic in Delhi, whose "spiritual home is Europe". She is beautiful but unmarried, living in straitened circumstances with her widowed mother who is desperately anxious for Nina to find a husband. Nina has so far resisted all her mother's attempts, but at thirty she is herself beginning to feel desperate also.
Ananda flies to Delhi to see Nina; and though each of them is irritated by the pressures exerted by his sister and by her mother, Ananda has no doubts, and Nina, whose feelings are much more complex, eventually accepts him. The events around the wedding are beautifully described: already, though still in India, Nina is taken out of the world to which she was accustomed.
In Canada she has much more trouble adjusting than Ananda had had; and Ananda, with his own deep-seated insecurities, is insensitive, "never understood a word she was saying", and is unhelpful. It would give too much away to go into details; but Nina's lonely, isolated, jobless, sexually frustrated and childless life is filled with great sadness.
We learn, graphically, about the problem which most troubles Ananda and about his attempts to overcome it - but that scarcely helps Nina, who eventually seeks help for herself - and that does not please Ananda. But they both feel `liberated' to do things they would not have done before - and find that there is a heavy price to pay.
An engrossing, but a sad, sad book. I read into it a suggestion that in India the extended family provides such a strong communal life that an unhappy arranged marriage would not lead to the isolation that Nina experiences in Canada. If that is what the author is wanting to convey, I think that would be a generalization both about India and about Canada. But it is certainly true of the particular situation in this novel.
After the death of his parents, Ananda had gone to Halifax, Nova Scotia to work as a dentist. He had no intention of going back to live in India and wanted nothing more than to become a proper Canadian. We see the adjustments he had to make to life in Canada. He did quite well; but the one thing he did not seem to manage was to establish a relationship with a Canadian girl. Back in India, his sister was trying to find him a wife. A matchmaker put her in touch with Nina's mother.
Nina is an academic in Delhi, whose "spiritual home is Europe". She is beautiful but unmarried, living in straitened circumstances with her widowed mother who is desperately anxious for Nina to find a husband. Nina has so far resisted all her mother's attempts, but at thirty she is herself beginning to feel desperate also.
Ananda flies to Delhi to see Nina; and though each of them is irritated by the pressures exerted by his sister and by her mother, Ananda has no doubts, and Nina, whose feelings are much more complex, eventually accepts him. The events around the wedding are beautifully described: already, though still in India, Nina is taken out of the world to which she was accustomed.
In Canada she has much more trouble adjusting than Ananda had had; and Ananda, with his own deep-seated insecurities, is insensitive, "never understood a word she was saying", and is unhelpful. It would give too much away to go into details; but Nina's lonely, isolated, jobless, sexually frustrated and childless life is filled with great sadness.
We learn, graphically, about the problem which most troubles Ananda and about his attempts to overcome it - but that scarcely helps Nina, who eventually seeks help for herself - and that does not please Ananda. But they both feel `liberated' to do things they would not have done before - and find that there is a heavy price to pay.
An engrossing, but a sad, sad book. I read into it a suggestion that in India the extended family provides such a strong communal life that an unhappy arranged marriage would not lead to the isolation that Nina experiences in Canada. If that is what the author is wanting to convey, I think that would be a generalization both about India and about Canada. But it is certainly true of the particular situation in this novel.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
It's hard to understand why novels about immigrants are often so dire - maybe, in their efforts to make two different cultures and countries seem real and important to the story, they either descend into stereotyped parody or make the novel one-sided. This novel isn't dire at all, though - in fact, it's very good.
Kapur deals delicately but firmly with the immigrant experience as she creates a world in which two very different people (Indo-Canadian dentist, Ananda, and age-conscious Indian lecturer Nina) struggle to settle in a new country - and adapt to married life.
For me, this book isn't just about immigration and the big cultural divide between India and North America. Instead, I thought it was much more about marriage itself - and how getting used to another person and a new way of life is a kind of immigration in its own right! Very funny and poignant by turn, a lot of the drama and the humour does revolve around the couple's nascent sex life. A fascinating insight into the process of getting used to a new situation and thinking through what is really worthwhile in a relationship. I found it well-written and carefully researched - an excellent read.
Kapur deals delicately but firmly with the immigrant experience as she creates a world in which two very different people (Indo-Canadian dentist, Ananda, and age-conscious Indian lecturer Nina) struggle to settle in a new country - and adapt to married life.
For me, this book isn't just about immigration and the big cultural divide between India and North America. Instead, I thought it was much more about marriage itself - and how getting used to another person and a new way of life is a kind of immigration in its own right! Very funny and poignant by turn, a lot of the drama and the humour does revolve around the couple's nascent sex life. A fascinating insight into the process of getting used to a new situation and thinking through what is really worthwhile in a relationship. I found it well-written and carefully researched - an excellent read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
'The Immigrant' is a novel concerning the semi-arranged marriage between an Indian couple and their integration into Canadian culture. While I could have done with a lot less focus on the sexual problems of Ananda, overall I found it an interesting glimpse into the complexities of arranged marriage, and how people cope with being transplanted abruptly from one culture to another.
A fulfilling read.
A fulfilling read.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Immigrant
I enjoyed this book and it was an easy read. My only criticism is that I feel there should be an index or referral page for all the words that commonly refer to phrases, items,... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ettieconfetti
wonderful reading
When I saw this book in a bookshop, I wanted to read it. Amazon price was much less for the same book and I'm enjoying every minute of reading this book.
Published 18 months ago by Y. Mitchell
Less direct, please
As with the other reviewers I found this a fascinating and serious novel, dealing sympathetically with very real issues for ordinary people in challenging situations. Read more
Published 21 months ago by NigelD
like a real life story
I found this book like listening to a story by my grandma. It the sort of thing that is happening in real life and interesting to read, including all the factual elements talked... Read more
Published 21 months ago by zenadox
Didn't care much in the end!
The story started off in a very promising manner, - the characters and scenes described well, and the story well written. Read more
Published on 3 April 2010 by Avid reader
VERY SLOW START
At first I despaired that I would finish this book, but after the first 200 pages I found it much more engrossing. Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2010 by bibliophile
Fascinating insight into an arranged ...
This story is about an arranged introduction (ultimately ending in marriage) between two people who have little in common and spotlights the problems they have. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2010 by Karen Baxter
The Immigrant
I bought this book last week and just finished reading it this morning. Thoroughly enjoyed it as I could identify with Nina a lot. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2010 by Neemisha
Not sure of its title
I started this book with hopes of evocative writing, empathy, sympathy and some drama. There are elements of all those but I really just found the novel rather boring. Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2009 by Sarah H
The Immigrant
The exploration of an arranged marriage is told in a down to earth style. The difficulties associated with Nina moving to an alien way of life and culture was well conveyed. Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2009 by S. Lloyd
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
