LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026

Three young people from vastly different backgrounds – Armando from Mozambique, Lolita from India and East German national Theo – are drawn together in a small Baltic city in 1989, just as the DDR begins to collapse around them.

It is 1989, and in a small Baltic city in East Germany, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, three young people from vastly different backgrounds become friends. Armando is a factory worker from Mozambique, Lolita is a medical student from India, and Theo is an East Berliner who dreams of being a writer.

When Armando and Lolita make a grisly discovery, they find themselves caught up in the politics of Theo’s homeland more than ever before. While a quiet revolution sweeps through Eastern Europe, and the Berlin Wall teeters, the three find themselves entangled in a poignant love triangle which threatens their futures.

As the world order shifts, their three lives are bound together in a web of love, lies and fears, leaving each irrevocably changed.

"An expert novel, The Others is superbly organized, with a steady, tense air of suspense, fine and persuasive emotion, and, above all, truly rich characters alive in a real history. The last pages produced in me a gasp of amazement."– Jonathan Lethem, Author of 'Motherless Brooklyn', National Book Critics Circle Award winner

'Kalayil's deft prose is both precise and lyrical, vividly conjuring place, time and characters in flux.'- Joanna Nadin, Sunday Times no 1. bestselling author and Professor of Creative Writing, University of Bristol

'I found it hard to put Sheena Kalayil's fourth novel down, so powerful is the untold story it tells. Yes, The Others is a love story, but it's also magnificently more; I loved the delicate intertwining themes of identity and displacement; setting and historical and political context are incredibly skilfully deployed; but there is also a rare and precious breadth of imagination in the novel. The writing is beautifully confident and flowing, and the characters and their journeys made me cry!'- Emma Henderson, Author of 'The Valentine House'