Jungle Without Water and Other Stories

This debut short story collection delves into the shifting boundaries and human displacement of our era. Of Indian-Malaysian background, Sreedhevi Iyer is adept at locating tensions within her own diaspora while also casting a forensic eye on Australian social and cultural attitudes. A teacher of creative writing at RMIT and the University of Melbourne, Iyer has a gift for radiant prose, but also an astonishing range of voices, from simple riffs on backyard suburbia to the magic realism of a narrative told by a “divine” coconut. Her sharp wit and sense of irony keep stories of refugees, inter-racial tension and human prejudice profoundly in our sights.

Praise for Jungle Without Water and Other Stories

‘Iyer has an incredible knack for locating and revealing fractures, faultlines and tensions – cultural, familial and historical – in any given moment.’

— Benjamin Law

‘A fresh new voice, brimming with vibrancy and insight.’

— Cate Kennedy

‘These are all tales of displacement and cultural cross-currents, and while they feature many different characters and voices, they all reveal a restless, questing intelligence and a real gift for storytelling.’

— Kerryn Goldsworthy, Sydney Morning Herald

‘…Iyer traverses a range of geographical and cultural settings, digging persistently into questions of identity, of the powerful and the marginalised, of distinctive and not always compatible world views, of cultural assumptions…Initially, Iyer’s prose seems measured — calm as a pond, in places. But the boldness and energy of her gaze, as well as its grace, are quickly apparent. Her stories have sharp but generous humour and a mostly seamless slipping of cultural and political ideas into plots. But the book’s most striking quality is Iyer’s ability to conjure a cacophony of distinctive, convincing voices.’

— Patrick Allington, Mekong Review