The English Problem

A Novel

By: Beena Kamlani

Length: 15 hrs

Publisher's summary

In this stunning debut novel, a young Indian man comes to England in 1931, determined to overthrow British rule back home—but the insidiousness of colonialism as well as a sexual awakening get in his way.

Shiv Advani is an eighteen-year-old growing up in India. But he is no ordinary young man. Shiv has been personally chosen by Mahatma Gandhi to come to England, learn their laws, and then return home and help drive the British out of India. Before he leaves, his family insists he fulfill his arranged marriage, and he is hastily betrothed to a young woman he hardly knows.

He arrives in London and soon discovers a world he is both repelled by and drawn to. Shiv knows his duty: get in, learn the letter of the law, get out. But as anyone who has ever lived in a British colony can tell you, “the English Problem” is multifaceted. The racist colonialism of “the empire on which the sun never sets” seeps into everything—not just landed territories, but territories of the mind: literature, language, religion, sexuality, self-identity. Soon the people Shiv sought to be liberated from will be the people he desperately wants to be a part of.

Set against the backdrop of the Indian independence movement, with appearances by historical figures such as Virginia and Leonard Woolf and Mahatma Gandhi, The English Problem is so self-assured and ambitious, it is hard to believe it is a debut.

©2025 Beena Kamlani (P)2025 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“What a grand, sweeping, mesmerizing book this is: a richly detailed, politically profound story of love, of migration, of individuals caught up in the great convulsions of history. Wow.”—Joseph O’Neill, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of Netherland

“The English Problem is powerful and profound—a journey across the world, rich in geography, history, philosophy, psychology! Beena Kamlani’s voice is lyrical and poetic; her style embracing, haunting, inspiring. The novel is a beautifully realized story about colonialism, and about love across racial, gender, and economic barriers in a toxic time. It is a glorious achievement.”—Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vols. 1-3, Viking Penguin, 1990-2016

“In elegant, evocative prose, Beena Kamlani evokes both the British understanding of India and the Indian understanding of Britain—each culture admiring yet misapprehending the other—and the life of a man who was of both cultures and of neither. Her characters are beautifully evoked and profoundly true; her narrative of displacement and desire is persuasive and resonant; and her deep understanding of the broken politics between societies trying to make sense of each other feels particularly relevant in today’s world. Unpretentious, understated, fully authentic, this is a sweeping novel of dispossession, loss, dignity, and love. It contains darkness, loneliness, even tragedy; but also an almost Gandhian narrative of peaceable, unrelenting hope.”—Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon