UK reviews:

‘Sinha’s book is ambitious: it is unforgivingly political and fearlessly politically incorrect. With geological metaphors abounding – the shifting tectonics of a planet tired and ablaze – it has been prescient about how the migrants’ crisis is not only a political and economic tragedy, but also an ecological one.’ - Henriette Korthals Altes, Times Literary Supplement

‘An exposé of the deeply troubling and corrosive effect of the system on the individual, how a dystopian world has been instituted and how we all seem ready to fall in line with it.’ - Paul Burke, Riveting Reviews, European Literature Network

French reviews:

‘Shumona Sinha’s singular voice takes us into the nauseating world of bureaucracy, without heroes or pure-hearted victims. She does not condemn anyone, or perhaps she condemns everyone. Welcome to the real world.’ - Grazia

‘Indian poet Shumona Sinha has transformed Baudelaire’s poetic provocation into a strange and blazing reflection on violence.’ - Olivier Maison, Marianne

‘The accuracy and power of her innovations in vocabulary and metaphor are striking. There is Kafka and Duras in these pages. But also Pascal Quignard whose reflection on the Greeks’ fundamental freedom to go wherever one wants is emphasised at the start. This freedom, in the material and spiritual sense of the word, is perhaps the main theme of this beautiful novel.Sinha turned it into the be-all end-all of her writing, scattered with a poetic vitality that is both dazzling and original.’ - Tirthankar Chanda, Radio France Internationale

‘A harsh lucidity, often misunderstood by those who, like Sinha, come from far away, looking for a better world. She is similar yet different. And that is the heart of the question - the knot, which she is trying to untangle, of her belonging and her rejection. It is both fascinating and gratifying.’ - Marie Etienne, Quinzaine littéraire

‘A striking book, infinitely harsh on exile, on society and its mirrors, its wounded memory. The author describes the nightmare of aimless wandering and the pain of being reduced to a bureaucratic checklist.’ - Christine Ferniot, Télérama

US and Canadian reviews:

‘Holding its intensity for a little over one hundred pages, Down with the Poor! is a poetic novella that addresses some of the most pressing and difficult questions we face today in a manner that is shocking, brutal and lonely. This is a very powerful little book.’ - Joseph Schrieber, roughghosts blog

Praise for Calcutta:

‘A seasoned novelist, Shumona Sinha travels between past and present, public unrest and private histories’ – L’Express

‘Longstanding tensions and bewildering modernity: the narrator sifts through the ashes before roaming through “the clutter of dreams”. She succeeds in creating an intimate, nostalgic and serious book; a journey to her birthplace, her family and her abandoned language which is also the story of her country’s political history.’ – Christine Ferniot, Télérama

UK reviews:

Riveting Reviews: Paul Burke reviews Down with the Poor! by Shumona Sinha
Paul Burke, European Literature Network, 30 September 2022

US and Canadian reviews:

“I’m afraid of myself.” Down with the Poor! by Shumona Sinha
Joseph Schrieber, roughghosts blog, 4 August 2023