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A treasure of a book – a novel of ideas that is also sensual, thrillingly alive. It is confident and smart, and emotionally resonant. Soobramanien’s themes are questions of exile and place, and her writing makes them seem as though we are confronting them anew. That too is so very exciting.
One morning in May 2003, on the cyclone-ravaged island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean, the body of a man washes up on the beach. Six weeks previously, the night Tropical Cyclone Kalunde first gathered force, destruction of another kind hit twenty-six-year-old Genie Lallan and her life in London: after a night out with her brother she wakes up in hospital to discover that he’s disappeared. Where has Paul gone and why did he abandon her at the club where she collapsed? Genie’s search for him leads her to Rodrigues, sister island to Mauritius – their island of origin, and for Paul, the only place he has ever felt at home. Will Genie track Paul down? And what will she find if she does?
An imaginative reworking of the French 18th century classic, 'Paul et Virginie', set in London, Mauritius and Rodrigues, Genie and Paul is an utterly original love story: the story of a sister’s love for a lost brother, and the story of his love for an island that has never really existed
studied English at Hull University and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She was a winner in the short story category of the Bridport Prize in 2009 and wrote two chapters of Luke Williams' debut novel, The Echo Chamber, winner of the Saltire Society’s Scottish First Book of the Year Award 2011. Natasha was born in London, where she now lives.
