This is a beautiful novel -- lush and well-written. While set on a fictional island, it draws from the history of the longstanding Indian diaspora, specifically the Indian labor diaspora. While the book is slow-paced, the story takes its time to discuss concepts of cultural ambition, maintaining family bonds across distance, home, and shows the reader the immigrant experience from the perspective of the one who leaves and of those left behind. The simmering socio-political situation adds tension to the backdrop of the story. I'm very glad to have read it.

On a small island in the South Pacific, siblings Bhumi and Jaipal inhabit different worlds. Bhumi lives in the nation's capitol where she received a full ride to study botany at the university. Her brother, Jaipal, lives at home with their parents and bartends at a nearby resort. When the political reality of the nation shifts in dramatic and violent ways, the two siblings are severed once more. Batsha crafts a stunning debut about what it means to survive, about how we carry our past, about how we imagine a better future.

I included this book in the NPR Books We Love series in June 2022.

"History has shown us what happens when an immigrant minority community becomes more dominant than the “native-born”, especially in a postcolonial region. Whatever the end result for the nation at large, there is always unbearable loss for individual families. Nishant Batsha’s Mother Ocean, Father Nation is about just such a family. On an island somewhere in the South Pacific, the Indian immigrant minority holds power, until the natives get restless and the violence escalates into an international refugee crisis. Through it all, a brother and a sister learn about survival and secrets. Batsha balances his storytelling to examine the many ways we belong within, and break away from our families, societies, and homelands."

This was an interesting and intense novel about two siblings and survival and secrets and destabilization and coming of age. Each sibling’s story is equally compelling, but Bhumi has my heart. Each character is distinct from one another, and the political machinations and how they affect the people affected by them ring true. Four stars.

tldr; “Mother Ocean Father Nation” is an incredible portrayal of a family whose lives are upended by civil unrest in a small unnamed Pacific island. The page-turner is a must-read for anyone looking to diversify their bookshelf.

“Mother Ocean Father Nation” follows two siblings, Bhumi and Jaipal, part of an Indian minority in an unnamed Pacific island in the 90s, a time of civil unrest and racial tensions, beginning with the attack of an Indian grocer by Native activists. Bhumi, a botany student, is forced to flee to California in an emergency due to her friendship with a high-ranking official’s daughter. Jaipal, ousted from his job as a bartender, moves to manage his family’s store, taking risks that could get him arrested or killed. Both siblings are thrust into an unknown, increasingly volatile environment in this page-turner by Nishant Batsha.

This novel was an incredible portrayal of a minority Indian community. All the characters are incredibly real and fleshed out, and Bhumi and Jaipal are connected by the same uncertainty and lack of belonging despite being miles away from each other. The novel also explores family dynamics with Bhumi and Jaipal’s abusive father, and Jaipal feeling like he has been left behind. Bhumi, on the other hand, connects with her tight-knit extended family in California, growing closer to them in the face of adversity.

In terms of the representation, the novel does a good job of explaining the effects of colonization on the Pacific Island and how when the white colonizers left the island, they left behind a strong class system between the different minorities on the island, directly leading to the civil unrest of the current times. Bhumi, who is seeking asylum in San Francisco, feels like an outsider to the Indian-American community. Batsha juxtaposes Bhumi with Vikram, an Indian-American student who she briefly dates, who mentions some of the differences between the Bhumi’s family and the Indian-American community. Jaipal, who has always felt mediocre compared to Bhumi, struggles with his sexuality in a time when that could be dangerous.

Mother Ocean Father Nation adds a compelling novel to the unfortunately scant body of literature about the global Indian diaspora. Batsha's story focuses on a brother and sister growing up on a South Pacific island nation (unnamed but loosely based on Fiji?). They are descendants of Indian indentured laborers brought to the island to work the sugar can fields.

Most non-Indians are probably not very aware of the vast global emigration from the subcontinent that resulted in large Indian populations throughout Commonwealth nations. Yet there are populations descended from these original settlers found across the globe.

Both siblings in Batsha's novel are engaging and bring layers of complexity to his story. On one level is the overarching tale of the island's Indian population as they face persecution from the more populous Melanesian population, led by a coup-installed General. On a deeper level is a dysfunctional yet tightly bound nuclear family led by an abusive father, a subservient mother, and the brother and sister protagonists.

I was engaged and interested in the outcome for both brother and sister. They each face challenges unique to the book's specific setting yet familiar to other oppressed peoples and refugees. If you are interested in humanity and hunger for original settings and stories, I suggest reading this book. Overall, it is a dark tale, but there is plenty within it to tug at your heartstrings and make you smile.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an electronic version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

On an unnamed island in 1985, a military coup has taken over the colonialist government and the racial tensions between the natives and the Indian community are incredibly high. Bhumi and Jaipal are siblings, Bhumi destined for success and at the locked-down university and Jaipal the unnoticed older brother, taking care of the family business and only getting distracted by his desires he tries to keep secret. The novel follows as the nationalist tensions increase and the paths of the sibling diverge.

The story is written beautifully and flows really well. It not only manages to capture the worries people face but also the day-to-day distractions they seek from the terribleness. The racism and the nationalism is heartbreaking. The post-coup set up of the island feels so real. Being without a country because what you call home rejects you is such a scary thought. And yet this book managed to touch on a lot of these and more in a weirdly lighthearted way that didn't take away from the seriousness of the topics that so many people are still facing. My only complaint is that everything seemed to come together with a bit clean and sadly that's seldom the case IRL.

Thank you Ecco Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

What a depressing book! I got about 60% in before realizing that I did not like a single one of the characters, the writing was depressing the heck out of me, and there was no silver lining/positive/good in the book to keep me going. It's a shame, because the premise was very interesting, it just needed a little bit more of a readability to it.

After a coup on their small Pacific Island, a brother and sister descended from Indian indentured servants must choose to remain and face violence and racism or flee their island home.

Set in the 1980s on an unnamed island in the South Pacific, Mother Ocean Father Nation tells the story of two siblings torn apart by a military coup. I learned so much from this book regarding the British Empire and their practices in India and the South Pacific, and the kind of atmosphere left in their wake. Jaipal and Bhumi are multi-dimensional characters that are facing impossible situations and choices, and I love that they are messy in all of their humanity. This book ends with a lot still unknown and I would love to find out what happens next for this family.

What is harder? Being left behind or being the one forced to leave? This is only part of the struggles Bhumi and Jaipal are forced to face when there is a power shift in the small island their family had immigrated to several generations ago. At times I was startled while reading as the prose flipped from being a basic story telling to beautiful lyrical language. It was almost as if there were two authors, each with a very different style, trying to help each other tell the story. But I think this did a great job of reminding me that life isn't simply good or bad at any point in time, it is a combination just like how the book was written. I wish I had gotten to know Bhumi and Jaipal more. I felt like we only saw them as they reacted to things around them. I think there was more there that could have been brought forth. Maybe it wasn't to allow more space for the plot? I look forward to what might come next from this new author.

Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in a Pacific Island (I'm guessing Fiji or modeled after Fiji), Indian descendants of indentured persons are vilified by the native government after a military coup. As their rights are increasingly restricted, a brother and sister struggle to adult and launch under increasingly oppressive conditions.

I appreciated this story for being innovative and offering a fresh perspective. And this was timely to read for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The experiences of this immigrant family were emblematic and universal.

I felt the storytelling could have been more affecting as the emotions felt flat and remained only descriptive. For instance, the backstory of Jaipal and Bhumi and their positions in the family was repeatedly explained but it didn't feel like it was "lived."

I would be interested in reading more from Batsha as he develops his storycrafting.

"Mother Ocean Father Nation" is a story told from two juxtaposed perspectives of two siblings in the South Pacific Islands in the 1980s: Bhumi, the family's hope and academic standout and her brother, Jaipal, who is framed as the family's black sheep. Their lives are thrown off with the political unrest in their homeland, and after Bhumi makes friends with Aarti, the daughter of a high-level government official, and is mistakenly associated with them, she is expelled from college and forced to leave her home.

We get to see the side-by-side perspectives from Bhumi, as she's forced to begin her life again as an undocumented immigrant in California, facing the prejudices that her race and gender force onto her. Jaipal, as he remains with their parents in the Pacific, also deals with his own inner demons, including coming to terms with his own sexuality and the realities of his relationship with his parents and sister. There are a number of weighty topics of Nishant Batsha handles with care and grace in this novel, and he's managed to portray Bhumi's and Jaipal's perspectives with clarity and kindness.

What I did struggle with at times was the lack of place in the novel; there aren't any specific locations mentioned, aside from "a small island in the Pacific", and even the political figures are vaguely named (ex. "The General"). Perhaps this was intentional, or my own background of history during this time is lacking, but I didn't feel as though there was enough context given to the situation at hand.

Mother Ocean Father Nation tells the story of the fallout of a military coup on an unnamed island in the South Pacific. We follow 2 siblings as they navigate these turbulent waters: golden child Bhumi and her somewhat bitter elder brother Jaipal. This story was beautifully told and explores so many aspects of living through a conflict of this nature. The native inhabitants of the island are rising up against the Indian population that was brought in by colonizers to work the farms and left behind to fend for themselves. The transplanted workers have done well for the themselves, as the native population was lower on the hierarchy of the Commonwealth. The coup gives an outlet to the generations of built up anger and aggression for the natives against the Indian residents and Bhumi and Jaipal are caught in the mess.

Bhumi is forced to flee the country after a fateful run-in with the new military while out with her government-connected roommate. We see the turmoil from the outside through her eyes as she settles in California and tries to get her bearings while her family is behind in a breaking nation. Jaipal, meanwhile, struggles to take over the mantle of main-earner for the family as his father loses faith in the world and tailspins through alcoholism and declining heart health. We watch through his eyes as the country continues to make racism into policy and push the Indian residents further and further, nearing the breaking point.

This is a beautifully told story that keeps a calm and even pace without ever losing the undercurrent of dread. Each character travelled a complete and natural arc that never felt too archetype-y; these were full people with personal, familial, and national struggles. The plot pulls you along without losing you in the weeds and you will genuinely want to turn the page and watch how these battles are fought. The author really manages to focus the narrative on these 2 people without losing view of the entire conflict - it was a joy to read.

**Thank you NetGalley and Ecco for the eARC**

As an Asian American, I was expecting to sort of relate to the immigrant aspects of this book. I didn't expect to get completely sucked into the personal lives of the two main characters.

We follow alternating stories of a brother and sister, who are Indian residents of a small island in the Pacific. The Indian community was brought to this island to work the cane fields and, although they are prosperous now, there is a revolution brewing. The natives have explicit control of the land and government, and they feel slighted by the outsiders' prosperity. Slowly, we witness as the ordinary rhythms of Bhumi and Jaipal's lives become completely disrupted. Bhumi is the stereotypical "golden child" of the family and is single-mindedly ambitious in her studies. Jaipal, the older brother, is less academically inclined and instead reluctantly follows in his father's footsteps as a shopkeeper. Both feel fear and resentfulness towards their father, who is prone to violent outbursts and adultery.

This could be the setup to any story but there is a calmness to the writing—and beneath that, the warning drums of danger lurking around the corner. Batsha writes knowingly of the tension between independent wants and familial expectations, of discerning between selfishness and self-sufficiency. I liked that he never pounded the reader over the head with these themes; they were implicit in the questions that the characters asked themselves. I was engrossed by how their perceptions changed as their external lives became more chaotic. In particular, Jaipal's struggles with his sexuality were written vividly and with great empathy. These twin strengths of subtle character development and narrative suspense made this a memorable read.

My only criticisms would be that the figurative language felt a bit forced or wooden at times...too many similes that hit the same note. In addition, I wasn't entirely convinced by Bhumi's impulsiveness and random bursts of anger. Sure, maybe she has a dominant personality, but I wished her internal monologue was more nuanced.

Overall, would highly recommend—especially for those into down-to-earth accounts of being an immigrant and/or queer. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Mother Ocean Father Nation follows two siblings who live in an island nation in the aftermath of political actions that send the sister from her college to the United States, and her brother who stays behind to run the family business. Recommended for book clubs.