Sunjeev Sahota
Author of The Year of the Runaways
About the Author
Sunjeev Sahota was born in Derbyshire, England in 1981. His novels include Ours Are the Streets and The Year of the Runaways, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. (Bowker Author Biography)
Works by Sunjeev Sahota
Dieses verdorbene Herz: Roman | Das Must-Read des Jahres und der fesselnde Roman zur Stunde. (2025) 1 copy, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Sahota, Sunjeev
- Legal name
- Sahota, Sunjeev
- Birthdate
- 1981
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Imperial College, London
- Awards and honors
- Granta's Best of Young British Novelists (2013)
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Derbyshire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Derbyshire, England, UK
- Map Location
- UK
Members
Discussions
2021 Booker Prize Longlist: China Room by Sunjeev Sahota in Booker Prize (August 2021)
Reviews
I finished the Booker nominated The Year of the Runaways. I have a bad record with critically acclaimed books about illegal migrants. Too close to home, perhaps, all that Dickensian grimness in supposedly 21st century Britain. I loved this though, four very different experiences of illegal moves to Britain, with a focus on the perpetuation of much of the inequalities of Indian society. I was gripped by all the narratives, but particularly that of Naurinder, whose apparently elite status is show more accompanied by barriers of a different kind to the three young men who make it to Sheffield. There are wonderful descriptions of temple life, as well as believable accounts of different working experiences. The recent legislation against modern slavery makes the slum like living conditions, forced imprisonment and desperate working circumstances sadly authentic.
'My family's Kumar.' He kept his eyes on her but it was almost as if she didn't care. Perhaps these English-born types didn't understand. 'It's a chamaari name,' he clarified. Still he saw no change in her face, no recalibration in her eyes. show less
'My family's Kumar.' He kept his eyes on her but it was almost as if she didn't care. Perhaps these English-born types didn't understand. 'It's a chamaari name,' he clarified. Still he saw no change in her face, no recalibration in her eyes. show less
Dual timeline story set in rural Punjab. The modern story involves a young man’s struggle with heroin addiction. He travels from England to India to live on his uncle’s farm while he goes through withdrawal. While there, he develops a fondness for a female doctor and learns more about a family secret involving his great grandmother. Many years later, he writes this story.
The historic timeline is set in Punjab in 1929. Mehar (whom we later find out is the young man’s great grandmother) show more is one of three young women, in their teens, married to three brothers. They are housed in the China Room (named for the dishes), apart from the family’s central residence. Each woman does not know which brother is her husband. They are controlled by a domineering mother-in-law, and are expected to be fully veiled, silent, and dutiful. Mehar is a bit of a rebel. She assumes one brother is her husband and eventually finds herself in trouble. This storyline is based on the author’s own family history.
I quickly became engrossed in the timeline that features the three sisters. From the start, we know something bad will happen to Mehar, so the atmosphere is tense, almost suffocating. I feel like the modern story is not quite as well developed, though there are a few parallels. Each story features a person in seclusion, a love story, and youthful mistakes. Each contains a political element – in the older story, the Free India movement gains momentum and in the modern story, immigrants are blamed for economic issues in the UK.
The writing is evocative. I could picture the scenes in India in my mind, though I have never been there. It portrays how family trauma in one generation can impact future generations. It is particularly effective in conveying the way the human spirit attempts to break free of internally or externally imposed imprisonment. show less
The historic timeline is set in Punjab in 1929. Mehar (whom we later find out is the young man’s great grandmother) show more is one of three young women, in their teens, married to three brothers. They are housed in the China Room (named for the dishes), apart from the family’s central residence. Each woman does not know which brother is her husband. They are controlled by a domineering mother-in-law, and are expected to be fully veiled, silent, and dutiful. Mehar is a bit of a rebel. She assumes one brother is her husband and eventually finds herself in trouble. This storyline is based on the author’s own family history.
I quickly became engrossed in the timeline that features the three sisters. From the start, we know something bad will happen to Mehar, so the atmosphere is tense, almost suffocating. I feel like the modern story is not quite as well developed, though there are a few parallels. Each story features a person in seclusion, a love story, and youthful mistakes. Each contains a political element – in the older story, the Free India movement gains momentum and in the modern story, immigrants are blamed for economic issues in the UK.
The writing is evocative. I could picture the scenes in India in my mind, though I have never been there. It portrays how family trauma in one generation can impact future generations. It is particularly effective in conveying the way the human spirit attempts to break free of internally or externally imposed imprisonment. show less
Sunjeev Sahota's 2021 Booker-longlisted China Room begins in the rural Punjab with a harrowing portrait of three very young Indian women confined in a tiny, dark living space called the 'china room', so called because of a Mai's dowry collection of willow-patterned china on the shelves in this room where the women are commanded to do all the domestic work for the family. A small, even darker screened off area is where the three men to whom they have been married obey their mother Mai's show more commands: to make their way on separate nights, to consummate their marriages and sire a son to work the family farm.
It is 1929, and the women, Mehar aged 15, Harbans and Gurleen (the oldest), had never seen the men to whom they were married on the same day. They are always veiled so that they cannot see or be seen, and must never raise their eyes above their own feet when they go into the main house to serve meals, or when they complete farm duties outside. The brothers Jeet, (the oldest), Mohan, and Suraj (the youngest and least compliant) have never seen their wives' faces, although they do know their names and which is which.
If this sounds too bizarre to be true, it's based on the story of the author's own great-grandmother.
But even in 1929 and even under these conditions which are more like slavery at Mai's command than what we understand marriage to be, these three young women have spirit. They have never met before, but they learn to work together as a team to avoid Mai's brutal wrath, and they talk amongst themselves when they have opportunities away from eavesdroppers. Their story is disturbing, absorbing, and surprisingly eventful.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/07/china-room-2021-by-sunjeev-sahota/ show less
It is 1929, and the women, Mehar aged 15, Harbans and Gurleen (the oldest), had never seen the men to whom they were married on the same day. They are always veiled so that they cannot see or be seen, and must never raise their eyes above their own feet when they go into the main house to serve meals, or when they complete farm duties outside. The brothers Jeet, (the oldest), Mohan, and Suraj (the youngest and least compliant) have never seen their wives' faces, although they do know their names and which is which.
On the wedding day itself no one in the family knew for sure who she'd ended up with. Mehar was shrouded from head to foot in her heavy red gown and gold drapes, her hands and even her feet wrapped in chenille, the material folded back and bound with gold threads around her ankles and wrists. She couldn't walk, talk or hear, and neither was she expected to, so Monty [Mehar's 17 year-old adopted brother] carried her across his arms, from the cart, up the steps, through the half-full temple and seated her beside the man waiting near the front of the hall. The groom wore his sehra, his curtain of white marigolds braided with crimson blooms, clipped to his turban and hanging down over his face. Monty tried to see if it was the same man who'd come to the house, and perhaps he managed to. Who knows? Even if he had succeeded, there was no way of delivering news to Mehar. Having carried her to the groom, he found no other opportunity to speak to her that day: once the ceremony was over she followed her husband into the cart, the driver kicked the horses into action, and Monty, determined not to cry, never saw his sister again. (p.39)
If this sounds too bizarre to be true, it's based on the story of the author's own great-grandmother.
But even in 1929 and even under these conditions which are more like slavery at Mai's command than what we understand marriage to be, these three young women have spirit. They have never met before, but they learn to work together as a team to avoid Mai's brutal wrath, and they talk amongst themselves when they have opportunities away from eavesdroppers. Their story is disturbing, absorbing, and surprisingly eventful.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/07/china-room-2021-by-sunjeev-sahota/ show less
Rip my heart out, why don't you? This story of three Indian men, exiles trying to survive in London, is brutal. Dalit Tochi, whose family was destroyed in an anti-low caste "purity" riot back in Bihar, tries to hide his caste in London and keeps himself removed from all other countrymen. Randeep gets a "marriage visa" with Narinder, an unselfish and devout Sikh woman who enters into the one year commitment only to help him to better himself and so that he can obtain citizenship papers. Avtar show more is a formerly middle class college student whose family at home can no longer afford to support him abroad, even after he sold a kidney for his airfare.
Economic and medical disasters at home in India force all three young men to seek work of any kind just to stay alive through the frigid English winter, all the while still trying to assist their families. It's "Nickeled and Dimed", and worse. Narinder is the truly unselfish hero who risks the social condemnation of her father and brother in India by postponing her marriage and taking a job, but her disillusionment wrenches her from her religious beliefs.
One constant in all books I've read about Indian culture is the imperative to keep one's family surrounded by the approbation of neighbors and family. This overwhelming pressure alone is enough to force poor decisions.
The trials of all four characters are brutally and realistically portrayed. It's not that nobody knows the trouble they've seen - it's worse: everyone knows and no one cares. I would say that any refugee from countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Eritrea sadly shares this same heartbreaking story.
A glossary would have been helpful. show less
Economic and medical disasters at home in India force all three young men to seek work of any kind just to stay alive through the frigid English winter, all the while still trying to assist their families. It's "Nickeled and Dimed", and worse. Narinder is the truly unselfish hero who risks the social condemnation of her father and brother in India by postponing her marriage and taking a job, but her disillusionment wrenches her from her religious beliefs.
One constant in all books I've read about Indian culture is the imperative to keep one's family surrounded by the approbation of neighbors and family. This overwhelming pressure alone is enough to force poor decisions.
The trials of all four characters are brutally and realistically portrayed. It's not that nobody knows the trouble they've seen - it's worse: everyone knows and no one cares. I would say that any refugee from countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Eritrea sadly shares this same heartbreaking story.
A glossary would have been helpful. show less
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- 5
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