China Room

Longlisted for Booker Prize 2021 China Room is a literary masterpiece inspired by real-life events from award winning author Sunjeev Sahota. '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. 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.