• SUNITA DE SOUZA GOES TO SYDNEY AND OTHER STORIES (Speaking Tiger, Rs 399) by Roanna Gonsalves is a collection of short stories, each of which explores the hope, anxiety and fear that inform the experience of immigration. The characters - college students, families - all from Bombay, have settled in Australia and deal with racism and culture shocks in their own way.

Gonsalves brilliantly captures the helplessness that often accompanies displacement, even if it is voluntary. The stories are nuanced without being overly complicated. The prose flows effortlessly and is devoid of unnecessary embellishments. The author uses the characters and their daily struggles to put forth an important political commentary about a globalized world in which countries are increasingly becoming insular entities.