Brown Baby
Brown Baby by Nikesh Shukla
Reviewed by Jess
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Many thanks to @bluebirdbooksforlife for putting this into our hands! 💞
The second I put this book down, I immediately thought of my parents. How lucky I am to be able to read books and articles that convey a perspective on life that I relate to so well, and how their lives might have been easier, lighter even to have access to stories that made them feel less alone as first-gen immigrants struggling in a new world.
And how lucky we are to have the talents of Nikesh Shukla.
This book is written as a letter to his daughter, an honest account of who he is as a person bringing her into the world and raising her. Brown Baby is an unvarnished look at life as a south Asian man in the UK today, tackling relationships, race, home, belonging, feminism, fatherhood, and food in a way that I would say is rare in modern British Asian families, even amongst my own generation.
Woven throughout the book is the story of Nikesh and his mother, from his loving upbringing to his unflinching grief in her passing. The chapter of him trying to recreate her khichidi made me laugh and cry all at the same time. The feelings of needing to recreate “home” wherever we are, looking for markers of people who might maybe understand us, explaining who we are to others even when we’re not sure of it ourselves, that shit is HARD, and Nikesh articulates it so so so well.
Importantly, I think this book is an excellent tool to show how to be an ally, not just to brown people, but in particular to women and women of colour, right from the start of their lives. Reading about his journey with his daughter was touching and made me hopeful that my own generation is working to move the goalposts closer to equality for all.
This book was insanely well-written, heart-wrenching, and perfect. It really felt like a letter from a friend in a way no other book has and deserves a place on your shelf and in your heart.
