Penguin set to release a new novel from Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author Sunjeev Sahota. A literary masterpiece, inspired by real-life events : CHINA ROOM
A multigenerational novel of love, oppression, trauma and the pursuit of freedom, inspired in part by the author’s own family history, China Room twines together the stories of a woman and a man separated by more than half a century but united by blood.
Mehar, a young bride in the rural Punjab of 1929, is trying to discover the identity of her new husband. She and her sisters-in-law, married to three brothers in a single ceremony, spend their days hard at work in the family’s ‘china room’, sequestered from contact with the men. When Mehar develops a theory as to which of them is hers, a passion is ignited that puts more than one life at risk.
Spiralling around Mehar’s story is that of a young man who, in 1999, travels from England to the now-deserted farm, its ‘china room’ locked and barred. In enforced flight from the traumas of his adolescence-his experiences of addiction, racism and estrangement from the culture of his birth-he spends a summer in painful contemplation and recovery, before finally finding the strength to return home.
Praise
‘Sunjeev Sahota’s writing is the stuff of miracles’ Bryan Washington
‘A gorgeous, gripping read’ Kamila Shamsie
‘I’m blown away by it. I was gripped from the first page to the last’ Tessa Hadley
‘Such a thrilling combination of beauty and heartbreak. It’s breathtaking’ Charlotte Mendelson
‘An intense drama of classic themes – love, family, survival, and betrayal – told with passion and precision in Sahota’s economical, lyrical prose. China Room is a brilliant novel. I won’t forget any of these characters’ Adam Foulds
About The Author
Sunjeev Sahota is the author of Ours Are the Streets and The Year of the Runaways, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize, the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and won the Encore Prize, the European Union Prize for Literature, and the South Bank Sky Arts Award. He was chosen as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in 2013. He lives in Sheffield.
24th May 2021 | Hamish Hamilton
Penguin Random House India
Hardback
