Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Excerpt from The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Readalikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

The Year of the Runaways

A novel

by Sunjeev Sahota
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • First Published:
  • Mar 29, 2016, 496 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Feb 2017, 496 pages
  • Rate this book

About this Book

Print Excerpt

Chapter 1
Arrivals

Randeep Sanghera stood in front of the green-and-blue map tacked to the wall. The map had come with the flat, and though it was big and wrinkled, and cigarette butts had once stubbed black islands into the mid-Atlantic, he'd kept it, a reminder of the world outside. He was less sure about the flowers, guilty-looking things he'd spent too long choosing at the petrol station. Get rid of them, he decided, but then heard someone was parking up outside and the thought flew out of his head.

He went down the narrow staircase, step by nervous step, straightening his cuffs, swallowing hard. He could see a shape through the mottled glass. When he opened the door Narinder Kaur stood before him, brightly etched against the night, coat unbuttoned despite the cold. So, even in England she wore a kesri. A domed deep-green one that matched her salwaar kameez. A flank of hair had come loose from under it and curled about her ear. He'd forgotten how large, how clever, her eyes were. Behind her, the taxi made a U-turn and retreated down the hill. Narinder brought her hands together underneath her chin—"Sat sri akal"—and Randeep nodded and took her suitcase and asked if she might follow him up the stairs.

He set her luggage in the middle of the room and, straightening right back up, knocked his head against the bald light bulb, the wire flexing like a snake disturbed from its tree. She was standing at the window clutching her handbag with both hands.

"It's very quiet," Randeep said.

"It's very nice. Thank you."

"You have been to Sheffield before?"

"My first time. What's the area called again?"

"Brightside," he said.

She smiled, a little, and gazed around the room. She gestured towards the cooker.

"We used to have one like that. Years ago."

Randeep looked too: a white stand-alone thing with an overhanging grill pan. The stains on the hob hadn't shifted no matter how hard he'd scrubbed. "There is a microwave, too," he said, pointing to the microwave. "And washing machine. And toaster also, and kettle and sofa-set .?.?.?carpet?.?.?." He trailed off, ridiculous to himself. "The heater works fine. It's included in the rent. I'm sorry there's no TV."

"I'm used to it." She looked to the wall. "Nice map."

"Oh. Thank you. I thought?.?.?." What did he think? "I want to visit every continent of the world." She smiled politely, as if he'd said he wanted to visit the moons of Jupiter. "It's one of my dreams."

There were only two other rooms. The bathroom was tiny, and the pipes buffalo-groaned when he forced the taps. In the centre of the greenish tub the hand-held shower lay in a perfect coil of chrome, like an alien turd.

"And this is your private room," he said, opening the second door.

She didn't step inside. There wasn't much to see: a double bed, a rail for her clothes, a few wire coat hangers. Some globs of Blu-Tack on damp, loose wallpaper. There was a long, hinged mirror straight ahead which they found themselves staring into, him standing behind her. She didn't even reach his shoulders. It was cold and he noticed her nipples showing through her tunic. Frowning, she pulled her coat shut and he averted his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's too small. And dirty. I'll look for something else tomorrow."

"It's fine. Honestly. Thank you for finding it for me."

"Truly?" He exhaled relief. "There is a bus from the bottom of the hill that can take you into town."

"And that hill will keep me in shape."

"And this isn't an area with lots of apneh." Her lips parted, but she didn't speak. "Like you asked," he reminded her. "And the gurdwara's only a few stops away. In Burngreave. I can show you? If you like?"

Excerpted from The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota. Copyright © 2015 by Sunjeev Sahota. Excerpted by permission of Knopf. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  Seva in Sikhism

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Great literature cannot grow from a neglected or impoverished soil...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.