Michelle D’costa’s debut novel You Envy the Coutinhos is a darkly comic account of a migrant family’s life in the Gulf and the repercussions back home.
Joachim Coutinho’s life in Mangalore is in a rut: a ne’er-do-well father, a mother and sister to provide for, never enough money, and dreams of being an actor in starry Bollywood which are going nowhere. He sets his sights on Bahrain and a job he hopes will improve his situation. Life in the Gulf, however, proves to be harder still. He’s lonely, and lives with a constant sense of inadequacy. But hey, he’s a ‘success’ story now, and a brave face is what he must put on.
Read an interview with Michelle in Gulf Daily News.
