Tamarin by Mauritian author Priya Hein (The Indigo Press (September 2025), has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2026 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards in the Fiction with a Sense of Place category, alongside authors such as Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah and Irene Solà! The winners will be announced in March 2026.
Tamarin follows the story of Anita, a Mauritian woman living in London. Following the collapse of her marriage, Anita longs to go back home to her native island, but is she ready to face the ghosts from her past? Intertwined with the rich history of Mauritius, it is a story about belonging, intercultural relationships, the migrant experience, patriarchy, sexual abuse and mental health. The novel has a beautiful sense of place and powerfully conveys the cultural differences between Mauritius and Anita’s adopted homeland, England, as well as the bloody colonial history of Mauritius and the uprootedness stemming from the migrant experience. The themes of family, betrayal, sexual assault, maternity, childlessness, and belonging are universal and finely portrayed. All translation and audiovisual rights are currently available.
After a wonderful book launch in London to celebrate publication day (photos above), Priya also hosted a local book launch in her beautiful home country of Mauritius (photos below), to share her new novel with friends, family and fans who enjoyed a delightful evening sharing drinks and celebrating Tamarin.
As a reminder, Priya Hein is also the author of Riambel (also published by The Indigo Press in 2023), winner of the 2021 Jean-Fanchette Prize, selected by Nobel laureate J. M. G. Le Clézio. Translation rights have been sold into French, German, and Catalan. She has published several children’s books and short stories, and has contributed to a number of anthologies. In 2017, she was nominated by the National Library of Mauritius for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. In 2019, she was selected by the University of Iowa's International Writing Program’s Women’s Creative Mentorship Project as one of two female emerging writers for Mauritius. In 2024, she returned to the IWP to complete the Fall Residency, becoming the fifth residency writer from Mauritius, and was recently named by Electric Literature as one of twelve Mauritian Women Writers one should read.
For more information about Tamarin or Riambel, please get in touch with Anna Soler-Pont (anna@pontas-agency.com).