Jungle Without Water and Other Stories is a collection that crosses borders and boundaries. People in these stories inhabit different stages of movement – those who have emigrated, those who want to, and those who regret it. The stories also depict our human prejudices around how we move from place to place and culture to culture. In “The Lovely Village” citizens of an unnamed settlement build a strong wall to keep newcomers out. In “Circular Feed”, refugees at a detention centre protest by standing on the roof of their living quarters. Alienation works across cultures, across boundaries of inequality. In “Green Grass” an inter-racial couple have a fight during their honeymoon in the husband’s homeland, while in the title story, two migrant boys look for the right place to pray on foreign soil. Altogether, the collection touches on how we view and understand race, colour, love, and what happens to us when we shift our selves in different environments.
“Sreedhevi Iyer deftly maps the human shifts of our time in a way few writers can, with an ear for the prejudices, accents and hopes we carry with us. This is clever, compelling twenty-first century writing, and we need more of it.” NICK EARLS
“Iyer is a wonderful storyteller, and this debut collection shows an incredible knack for locating and revealing fractures, fautlines and tensions – cultural, familial and historical – in any given moment.” BENJAMIN LAW
