What happens to those who leave home in search of safety? And what becomes of the people they leave behind? In his latest novel, Drown All the Refugees, acclaimed writer Tabish Khair grapples with these unsettling questions through an unexpected lens: Gothic horror.
Published by HarperCollins India and illustrated by artist Vikram Nayak, the novel delves into the emotional and psychological aftermath of migration, examining not only the journeys of refugees but also the invisible wounds carried by those connected to them.
The story begins with a shocking declaration. At a literary event, the unnamed narrator screams, “Drown all the refugees.” It is a deliberately jarring statement, but one rooted in personal grief rather than provocation alone. The narrator has lived with the realities of displacement all his life. His Palestinian boyfriend, Abdul, is dead, while his childhood friend Pedro vanished after illegally crossing India’s borders in pursuit of a better future.
Years later, Maria—Pedro’s mother and the narrator’s childhood nurse—turns to the occult in a desperate attempt to bring her son back home. But the person who returns is no longer the vibrant young man she once knew. As the narrator sets out to uncover what happened to Pedro during his journey and his mysterious return, he is forced to confront a series of revelations marked by violence, loss and deep unease.
Rather than offering easy answers, Drown All the Refugees asks readers to look more closely at a fractured world shaped by borders, exile and human suffering.
Speaking about the novel, Khair said he wanted to move beyond familiar narratives about refugees and focus on an often-overlooked aspect of displacement.
“Many novels explore the struggle to find refuge—the dangerous journeys and the challenges of building a new life elsewhere. I was equally interested in what is left behind, and what, if anything, returns. This is a story about those who leave and those who are left behind, and the violence that remains buried beneath those experiences,” he said.
Dharini Bhaskar, Associate Publisher (Literary) at HarperCollins India, described the novel as one of Khair’s boldest works to date.
“Tabish Khair is a writer who constantly surprises readers, and this may well be his most audacious work. By using the language of Gothic horror and the occult, he explores urgent contemporary issues such as migration and displacement in a strikingly original way. It is a layered, unsettling and deeply compassionate book that reveals the unsettling realities of the world we inhabit today,” she said.
The novel has already drawn praise from leading literary voices. Author Manu Joseph wrote that it contains “so many truths per chapter that it feels absurd to call this fiction.” Pakistani writer Mohammed Hanif described it as “a heartbreaking and sly story” that compels readers to see the world differently, while novelist Rupa Bajwa called it “an engaging, empathetic novel” about lives uprooted by violence and sustained by fragile forms of love.
Born in Ranchi and educated in Gaya, Bihar, Tabish Khair is a poet, novelist, journalist and scholar who now teaches at Aarhus University in Denmark. Over the years, he has built an international reputation with works such as The Thing About Thugs, Jihadi Jane, How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position and The Body by the Shore. His latest academic work, Literature Against Fundamentalism, was published by Oxford University Press in 2024.
With Drown All the Refugees, Khair delivers a haunting and timely meditation on migration, memory and the enduring scars of displacement—reminding readers that every journey across a border leaves behind stories that continue to haunt those who remain.
