Join us for a discussion about this powerful story of migration, friendship and love.
Longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, The Others follows three young friends from Mozambique, India and East Germany whose lives collide during the dramatic final days of East Germany. As political upheaval sweeps across Europe, a shocking discovery and a complicated love triangle force them to confront questions of identity, belonging and the future.
Rich in historical detail and emotional depth, The Others explores friendship, identity, migration and belonging during a pivotal moment in European history. Longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, this thought-provoking author talk will be followed by an audience Q&A.
About the author:
Sheena Kalayil is an author and academic based in Manchester. In her latest novel, The Others (Fly On The Wall), longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026, she continues to explore untold stories of migration. Her third novel, The Wild Wind (Polygon), is based on her nomadic childhood, spent shuttling between India, and Zambia and Zimbabwe, where her parents were teachers. She has worked as a teacher all over the world, including in Nepal, Mozambique, Tunisia and Venezuela.
Since 2002 she has lived in the UK and now teaches at the University of Manchester. Her first novel, The Bureau of Second Chances (Polygon) won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best First Novel and was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Prize for Fiction with a Sense of Place.
Instagram: @sheenakalayilauthor
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