Genie and Paul

By Natasha Soobramanien

Genie and Paul is an utterly original love story: the story of a sister's love for a lost brother, and the story of his love for an island that has never really existed. One morning in May 2003, on the cyclone-ravaged island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean, the body of a man washes up on the beach. Six weeks previously, the night Tropical Cyclone Kalunde first gathered force, destruction of another kind hit 26-year-old Genie Lallan and her life in London: after a night out with her brother she wakes up in hospital to discover that he's disappeared. Where has Paul gone, and why did he abandon her at the club where she collapsed? Genie's search for him leads her to Rodrigues, sister island to Mauritius—their island of origin, and for Paul, the only place he has ever felt at home. Will Genie track Paul down? And what will she find if she does?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Aug 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781908434166

Natasha Soobramanien

Natasha Soobramanien, British-Mauritian, is the author of Genie and Paul. Her second novel, Diego Garcia, is co-authored with Luke Williams. She used to live in Edinburgh, but now lives in Brussels. Diego Garcia  won the 2022 Goldsmiths Prize. 

Reviews for Genie and Paul

[spiralsheep · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

161/2020. The story of a rootless young man who has lost himself in self-destructiveness and his younger sister who obsessively tries to find him. The descriptions of London are notably accurate. I hope the same is true of Mauritius, although the author's note implies she filched her descriptions of Rodrigues from another book.Although for me this novel was an average read it was because the author didn't seem to have found her voice rather than any lack of novelistic skills so I'd be interested to read a second novel by Natasha Soobramanien if she ever writes it.