The Year of the Runaways

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Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015Sweeping between India and England, and between childhood and the present day, Sunjeev Sahota’s unforgettable novel about illegal immigrants is – as with Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance – a story of dignity in the face of adversity and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.’The Grapes of Wrath for the 21st century’ – Washington PostThe Year of the Runaways tells of the bold dreams and daily struggles of an unlikely family thrown together by circumstance. Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life. Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar; and Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the chaotic Randeep. Randeep, in turn, has a visa-wife in a flat on the other side of town: a clever, devout woman whose cupboards are full of her husband’s clothes, in case the immigration men surprise her with a call.’A brilliant and beautiful novel’ – author of Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie, Guardian

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