Book Review: 'Super' By Lindsay Pereira Exposes The Dark Underside Of The Migrant Dream
· Free Press Journal
Super by Lindsay Pereira is an unsettling novel that examines what is practically an Indian trope — the dream of migration to the West — and leads it to a conclusion that sounds straight out of any recent newspaper headline.
Set between Punjab and Canada, the book follows Sukhpreet Gill, a young man from Jalandhar who longs for a better life abroad, and contrasts his journey with the quiet despair of Maynard Wilson, a Canadian grappling with unemployment and resentment. Through these parallel lives, Pereira dismantles the romanticised idea of the “foreign dream” and replaces it with a more complex, often disturbing reality.
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Sukhpreet’s yearning for Canada reflects the familiar narrative of escape from economic stagnation and the hope for dignity. Yet, as the novel unfolds, this aspiration is steadily stripped of its sheen. Pereira reveals how migration is entangled with debt, exploitation, loneliness and fractured identities. The promise of arrival, the novel suggests, is not redemption but merely the beginning of another struggle.
One of the things that stands out is the novel’s structural restraint. There is little conventional drama; instead, Pereira allows the tension to simmer as the trajectories of his characters slowly converge. When they do, the moment feels less like a climax and more like an inevitability shaped by invisible social and economic forces. This approach reinforces the novel’s central idea — that individual lives are often at the mercy of larger systems beyond their control.
Book Review: 'The Liar Among Us' By Bishhal Paull Is A Thrilling Young Adult Mystery Set In Mystical SikkimPereira’s prose is sparse and unadorned, and the simplicity of his language is the novel’s chief strength — it lends the narrative an almost documentary quality, making the emotional weight of the story more striking. He avoids sentimentality, choosing instead to present events with a clinical detachment that can be deeply unsettling. This stylistic choice aligns with the novel’s broader tone: Super offers no comforting resolution.
However, this same austerity can also be a limitation. Readers looking for rich interiority or dramatic narrative arcs may find the novel somewhat distant. The characters, while symbolically powerful, occasionally feel more like vessels for ideas than fully fleshed individuals. Yet this distance seems intentional, mirroring the alienation that defines the migrant experience itself.
A dark, cautionary tale, Super challenges notions of migration and survival, and is likely to leave you shaken.
Book: Super
Author: Lindsay Pereira
Publisher: Fourth Estate, an imprint of Harper Collins
Price: Rs 699