Genie and Paul

'A vibrant postcolonial response to Paul et Virginie... The myriad tales layer over the source material of Paul et Virginie to create a rich fictional tapestry.' – Wasifiri

'Gripping.' – Observer

'Superb... Each protagonist’s story is told in turn, and their voices deftly differentiated. – Financial Times

'Polyphonic and intricately patterned... a subtle meditation on the compulsion to keep looking, even when we know that what we are looking for no longer exists, and perhaps never existed at all.' – Times Literary Supplement

'Bittersweet, rivetingly drawn, mysteriously languid: a feast for the senses.' – Guardian

'Set in present-day London, Genie and Paul, a superb first novel... contemporises with brilliant effect the 18th-century French classic Paul et Virginie.' – Pankaj Mishra, Guardian Books of the Year

'Soobramanien's poised, resonant tale of innocence and experience is strikingly original... [she] subtly explores ideas of home in a way that marks her out as a rare talent.' – Daily Mail

'This beguiling first novel is a rich, warm, modern reworking of Paul et Virginie... beautifully captures the fairytale atmosphere of the original.' – The Times

'An exceptional debut novel. Soobramanien proves her emotional intelligence in her real understanding of what it means to grow up in a country not one’s own.' – Red

'A vivid account of exile and expatriation... when it comes to mood and melancholy, Soobramanien's grasp is unerring. Genie and Paul is nothing short of remarkable.' – Time Out

'Genie and Paul is quite simply a stunning novel. It exudes the sort of originality that should, if there is any justice in the world, augur a long and honorable career.' – Maureen Freely

'A clever and beautiful novel, bringing new terrain into the literary.' – Amit Chaudhuri

'A treasure of a book – a novel of ideas that is also sensual, thrillingly alive. It is confident and smart, and emotionally resonant.' – Christos Tsiolkas

'A stunning debut novel, lyrical and touching, that explores the bonds of family and what it means to call a place home.' – Foyles

'Soobramanien's greatest achievement with Genie and Paul may lie in its expression of the lost time between childhood and adulthood... the space in between the lines of narrative being a silent, eloquent representation of the lost hours of youth.' – The Quietus

'A fresh, original story of love, of shared memories and places that always feel like home to us.' – We Love This Book

'Dreamy and still, yet passionately evocative, an insight into the outer world of the immigrant and more importantly the inner life of the mind.' – Bookmunch

'The sense and evocation of place is key, and Soobramanien writes with great insight as to how our bonds with those we are closest to shape our lives.' – We Love This BookRead

'Poised and meticulously written, there’s hardly a word out of place let alone wasted sentence, each line justified in this lean but expansive novel.' – God Is In The TV: The Independent Music & Culture Webzine

'Soobramanien vividly describes... not just nostalgic literary tropes but real violations inflicted on real people... [and] deftly describes the experience of returning to a long-lost 'home' only to find that one is not fully recognised by those who never left.' – The National

'The author does something quite remarkable: she subverts part of the literary canon. Swallows it; allows it to be partially digested; regurgitates it. Spits out what remains to reveal... something far more beautiful.' – Stanfords Travel

'Explores the pains and longings of an intense sibling relationship through a reworking of the eighteenth-century classic of doomed love, Paul et Virginie... the writing is excellent, and Soobramanien reproduces textures particularly well.' – Bookoxygen

'This is a unique book, and one I quickly came to love... Easy to read with beautiful turns of phrase, I know this will stay with me for some time.' – Rush Hour Reads

'A novel of breathtaking scope and heart-breaking beauty as it explores the meaning of identity and what it feels like to have no sense of your place in the world.' – Pamreader

'The sense of belonging, and the struggle to find it, are realised sensitively by Soobramanien... Her character descriptions are perceptive and have been rather originally shaped.' – Bookgeeks

Natasha Soobramanien was born and grew up in London, but also lived for a time in both Hong Kong and Hastings. She currently lives in London. She studied English at the University of Hull and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She stayed on after her MA to do a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing, for which she submitted an early draft of Genie and Paul (Myriad, 2012), a retelling (or ‘cannibalistic translation’) of the French eighteenth-century classic Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de Saint Pierre. While at UEA, Soobramanien met fellow writer Luke Williams, to whose debut novel The Echo Chamber she contributed two chapters. Her contribution was well-received: the Guardian described it as ‘quirky, aggressive, funny, demotic… a rollicking read’, while the New York Times praised its ‘ebullience and erotic fizz’, and the Sunday Times named both Soobramanien and Williams ‘talented writers to watch’. The novel went on to win the 2011 Saltire Award for Best First Book. The two writers are now collaborating on a novel, Diego Garcia, which tells the history of the island of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago, from its origins in myth to its present status as a British colony, US military base and appropriated homeland of the Chagossian Islanders.