Join us for an evening with Sheena Kayalil, discussing her fourth novel, The Others.
Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026.
Sheena is an Indian-British author, whose debut, The Bureau of Second Chances (Polygon), won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best First Novel, and was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Prize for Fiction with a Sense of Place. She grew up in India and Zambia and has worked as a teacher all over the world, including in Nepal, Mozambique, Tunisia and Venezuela. Since 2002 she has lived in the UK, and now works at the University of Manchester.
The Others
It is 1989, and in a small Baltic city in East Germany, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, three young people from different backgrounds become friends. Armando is a factory worker from Mozambique, Lolita is a medical student from India, and Theo is an East Berliner who dreams of being a writer. When Armando and Lolita make a grisly discovery, they find themselves caught up in the politics of Theo’s homeland more than ever before. While a quiet revolution sweeps through Eastern Europe, and the Berlin Wall teeters, the three find themselves entangled in a poignant love triangle which threatens their futures.
I found it hard to put [The Others] down, so powerful is the untold story it tells. Yes, The Others is a love story, but it’s also magnificently more; I loved the delicate intertwining themes of identity and displacement; setting and historical and political context are incredibly skilfully deployed; but there is also a rare and precious breadth of imagination in the novel. The writing is beautifully confident and flowing, and the characters and their journeys made me cry! Emma Henderson
This event is part of Right to Read, a New Writing North programme of events across the North East to celebrate the National Year of Reading in 2026. Visit www.newwritingnorth.com/righttoread to find out more.
