Manju Kapur’s The Immigrant: A Saga of Marital Disharmony

Abstract

Manju Kapur’s fourth novel The Immigrant was published in 2008 and was shortlisted for the DSC prize for South Asian Literature. It was subtitled by Kapur as ‘a truly compelling portrait of an arranged marriage’ in which she explores the depths of an Indian woman’s mind struggling in search for her own happiness in a foreign country. The novel also deals with the problems of woman aspiring for higher life in general. It is a mesmerizing saga about the complexities of marriage and NRI life by Kapur. The paper is an attempt to show the loneliness, suffocation and longing of a modern woman in an arranged marriage in the context to Indian society.