Sunjeev Sahota

I read a full third of this book and was very bored. I found the prose and the characters quite bland and there was little momentum to the plot. It centres around a 40-something man, Nayan, vying with a younger ideologically Woke woman for leadership of a union.

Nayan has a sad past: over two decades ago, his mother and child were killed in a fire and his marriage subsequently fell apart. There is a mystery around those deaths, and there’s every indication that the fire was a criminal act. A woman who’s returned to Nayan’s northern town may know something about it. Unfortunately, I didn’t care enough about any of these characters to stick around to find out.

I found this a great disappointment after Sahota’s Booker-nominated China Room from a few years back.… (more)

This book has its heart in the right place, and there is a great novel in there somewhere. Unfortunately, all the blueprints are too clearly visible - plot devices a, b, and c are put in just so, and "here the reader is to feel emotion x, and here emotion z". There was a sense of incompleteness, as if I was reading a rough draft that would go back to the author for further shaping and moulding. I did like the way Sunjeev Sahota writes. There were beautiful moments in this book - there just wasn't enough of them.… (more)