No Place to Call My Own’ seethes with a quiet anger of our times, where a young woman struggles with her own sense of self and belonging, and the restless anxieties of adulthood in Urban India.

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the writer and filmmaker Alina Gufran about her debut novel, No Place to Call My Own (Westland Tranquebar, January 2025)

Stories with self-aware but disillusioned millennial women protagonists are on the rise, and many of these characters, especially in recent Southasian literary fiction, are caught up in the messiness of late-capitalist life.

Through Sophia, a young woman navigating life and painful self-discovery across cities, No Place to Call My Own tackles issues related to class, religion and economic precarity. Unfolding against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement, the 2020 Delhi riots, and a global pandemic, the novel questions what it means to fit in when apathy becomes a mode of survival.

Sophia’s journey is not just her own but that of any woman who finds themselves caught in between – unable to back down and refusing to conform – and who doesn’t quite feel rooted to one place or identity. Though the picture Alina Gufran paints of this generation may be grim, it will be immediately and uncomfortably relatable to anyone contending with what it means to belong in Urban India today.

This episode is now available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/K-fhyQAxkAI

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7BFGQl29bldpT52KgMNHAC

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/alina-gufran-on-millennial-precarity-and-unbelonging/id1464880116?i=1000717116210

Let’s keep the conversation going – please share your thoughts on the episode or on Alina Gufran's novel. If something resonated with you, leave us a comment here on Youtube or send me an email (shwethas[at]himalmag[dot]com).

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