The Permanent Resident

A woman who can't swim wades into a suburban pool. An Indian family sits down to an Australian Christmas dinner. A single mother's offer to coach her son's soccer team leads to an unexpected encounter. A recent migrant considers taking the fall for a second-generation 'friend'. A wife refuses to let her husband look at her phone. An international student gets off a train at night.

The Permanent Resident by Roanna Gonsalves is a collection of short stories that unearth the aspirations, ambivalence, and guilt laced through the lives of 21st-century immigrants. The stories navigate clashes of cultures, trials of faith, and squalls of racism.

Sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes playful, these stories cut to the truth of what it means to be a modern outsider.