A review by catdad77a45
No Other World by Rahul Mehta

4.0

Mehta's first novel, after his award-winning short story collection, Quarantine, fulfills the promise of his shorter work. Although it contains some well-worn tropes from both the gay coming of age novel, and the Indian immigrant in America story, there are enough fresh and interesting details to lend it some uniqueness. Some structural and temporal wonkiness (for example, Prabhu is introduced as coming to America due to his grief over his wife dying in childbirth, leading one to believe his son is newly born - only to learn several chapters later that the boy is actually 10 at the time) and an annoying withholding of information so it can be revealed at the most opportune time, prevented this from being a full 5 star read for me. Also, the most intriguing character, the young transgender 'hijra' Pooja, isn't introduced until the final section ... more of her story would have gone a long way towards enhancing the book.