‘And I quit life as I would an inn, not a home, for nature has given us lodging for a sojourn, not a permanent residence’. (Cicero) No Country, Part III, ‘Brendan: “Rose of Erin”’
I f one word captures the spirit of Kalyan Ray’s No Country, it is the word ‘sojourn’ from the words of Cicero above. It has been called a family drama in some reviews, and a love story in some, but essentially, this is a narrative about sojourns, ships setting sail for distant lands with characters who seek asylum, characters that set up house in distant lands and yet, long for homes, real or imagined. 150 odd years, ten narrative voices, and dizzying trajectories of characters in search of home: No Country is written with a lot of passion indeed.