No One Else

‘An extraordinary book that triumphs on many levels, personal and social … Above all, it is a sensual and passionate story about the search for love, the endless flowing river in the cave of man”, that animates all our lives.’ – Sudhir Kakar’This searing memoir of a gay man from a country that criminalizes homosexuality is intertwined with a first-hand account of the struggle for basic human rights by gays as well as by women sex workers, two groups similarly outlawed in India. Dube unsparingly exposes a complex web of hypocrisy, corruption and brutality in this work of grave, vital importance.’ – Kiran Desai At the age of ten, Siddharth Dube finds himself entranced by an androgynous striptease dancer and begins to see something of himself in her visceral beauty. He’s only just starting to understand some of his life’s defining preoccupations. For Siddharth is gay, and it’s dangerous to be gay in India. As Siddharth confronts personal traumas to eventually emerge as a staunch fighter for the outcast, his journey spans privilege as well as bigotry and persecution – from elite Doon School and Harvard to unsafe streets where lonely men seek each other out for sex and love, from the halls of power at the World Bank and the UN to jail cells where sex workers suffer horrifically at the whim of misguided officials. In a book that is deeply personal yet public-spirited, Siddharth writes with passion and insight about his own search for love and self-respect, and of the struggles of the oppressed and hated in a time of global right-wing ascendancy. Like that dancer Siddharth glimpsed as a young child, No One Else is beautiful, singular and unforgettable, a tour de force that celebrates love and sensuality, dignity and freedom, and holds to account those who would deny anyone these priceless human joys.”