Over the course of a night in police custody, a young woman tries to understand the rage that led her to assault a refugee on the Paris metro. She too is a foreigner, now earning a living as an interpreter for asylum seekers in the outskirts of the city. Down With the Poor!, which borrows its title from a poem by Baudelaire. is the story of a woman who, little by little, is contaminated by the violence of the world.
"The voice is singular and compelling. The book brings to mind Mohsin Hamid, Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, Virginie Despentes, and Lynne Tillman. It raises questions about legitimate and illegitimate status in Europe and the tension between the two. Empire, whitewashing, playing the good immigrant—these themes underscore the prose. It's a book that doesn't give you all the answers, but that's not the point of it really. Definitely one to read and shout about." —Niven Govinden, author of Diary of A Film and This Brutal House
"Sinha lays bare so much of the nuance and violence imposed on individuals by the systems in the world meant to keep certain people down." — Emma Ramadan, translator of Anne Garréta
