The Year of the Runaways

Author: Sahota, Sunjeev

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 6 March 2025 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom as part of the Picador Collection series.

Paperback | 480 pages
196 x 129 x 28 | 324g

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Sweeping between India and England, from childhood and the present day. Sunjeev Sahotas unforgettable novel about illegal immigrants is a story of dignity in the face of adversity. For fans of Rohinton Mistrys A Fine Balance.

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. 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 husbands clothes, in case the immigration men surprise her with a call.

Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

A writer who knows how to make you stay up late at night to learn what happens next . . . a brilliant and beautiful novel – author of Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie, Guardian