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    The Year of the Runaways
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    The Year of the Runaways
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    The Year of the Runaways
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Year of the Runaways

    Written by Sunjeev Sahota

    Narrated by Sartaj Garewal

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The 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 search of a new life. Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the choatic Randeep. Randeep has a visa-wife in a flat on the other side of town. And Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateSep 10, 2015
    ISBN9781510010840
    Unavailable
    The Year of the Runaways
    Author

    Sunjeev Sahota

    Sunjeev Sahota was born in 1981 in Derbyshire and continues to live in the area. Ours are the Streets was his first novel and his second, The Year of the Runaways, was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize and was awarded a European Union Prize for Literature in 2017.

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    Reviews for The Year of the Runaways

    4/5

    152 ratings15 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Sunjeev Sahota's story of an underclass of immigrants to England, legal, barely legal or strictly illegal is engrossing, moving and highly readable - I read it in two days - but ultimately falls a little short of the very high standards it sets itself. Randeep, Avtar and Tochi are working on a building site in Sheffield, long hours for low wages, in atrocious living conditions and with little idea of what tomorrow will bring. Every day brings a new search for more, or better work. Long days of trudging the streets in the cold, searching for the most menial of work for little better than a pittance, meeting with occasional kindness, but more often with brusque indifference even in the face of their obvious suffering. All three have escaped to England for a better life; but surely whatever they are running from couldn't have been worse than this? Indeed it could. Tochi is on the run from the aftermath of a vicious sectarian riot in Bihar, constant work his only way of killing the images in his mind. Avtar, who has lost his job due to nepotism, needs to support his family and pay the mortgage on his father's failing shawl shop, as well as the rapacious usurers who lent him the money to get to England; he is connected to Randeep, the third of them, in ways Randeep can barely imagine. Randeep is the relatively privileged son of a government official; but when his father becomes ill and loses his job and he makes a grievous error of judgement at college that ends his hopes of university, he too has to head for England. At least he has a visa - he is married to a British sikh girl called NavinderAnd Navinder really is the most interesting character in the book; born into a strictly observant Sikh family, she spends her time looking after her father and observing the rituals of her faith, perhaps a little more devoutly than most. It is to Sahota's credit that he passes no judgement on what, for most of us, would be a very repressive existence, instead seeing it from Navinder's perspective; the joy of ritual, the satisfaction of giving service, the pleasure of little acts of goodness.Why then does the beginning of the book find her in a small flat in Sheffield, meeting her husband Randeep for the second time, willing to spend a year in a fake marriage to him to allow him to get a permanent British visa? As Navinder's backstory unfolds and we find out much more about Sikh cultural and religious practice than most non Sikhs probably ever knew, we find that it is a combination of a holy desire to help and curiosity about the wider world that have led her to this, and the breakdown of everything she held dearSahota is very good at the details; everyday family life in India, the struggles to meet ends meet, the difficulties of a secret romance, the appalling prejudice to the scheduled castes, the details of religious ritual, the details of backbreaking work, the details of squalid living in squats. He also provides realistic details of how to get to Europe without a visa. In a sense, this is less fiction than anthropology - its hard to imagine how Sahota would know all this without spending time talking to illegal immigrants in his native Yorkshire. And very good anthropology its is too - I was reminded of Oscar Lewis' classic The Children of Sanchez - and certainly its a story that needed to be told. And the gritty realism of the book is more reminiscent of American dirty realist writers than the style of most Indian authors I have read. Why then does the book fall short of its very lofty ambitions? Because the characters are ultimately somewhat shallow; Tochi's motivations remain particularly unclear. Can Randeep really be so weak and naive and yet still survive? Some reviews that I have read suggest an optimistic ending for all four main protagonists; its hard for me to be see it the same way. Whilst the ending for one of our four is undoubtedly positive, the other three are a lot more ambiguous. And there's a hint of heartbreak about the final page - which is a shock after the grimly realistic previous 460 pagesOverall its a book I would recommend; its not perfect, but it is absorbing and I am looking forward to Mr Sahota's next
    • 5/5
      A very authentic account of issues faced by a section of people of Indian origin, legal & illegal immigrants, and also those who’ve been born and brought up here in the UK. Some characters might seem stereotyped, but they are a very true reflection of characters in the British society. I also loved the narration for most part. The narrator had very authentic variations of accents spoken by the subsections within the Indian origin community.
    • 4/5
      Hard story but a good one.
    • 5/5
      This book tells about young people trying to make their way in a world determined to value them based on their caste.

      You know how Latinos come to the U.S. thinking they will make a better life for their family, only to find that society is dead-set against them? Well, Indians go to England, hoping to make a better life, only to fight the same thing.

      This book is heartbreaking and beautiful; for all you readers out there who stubbornly stuck to what they believed in, even if it meant you would never be successful in the conforming world, this book is for you.
    • 4/5
      Not sure how many books filled with abject misery I want to read for pleasure. This was sad on an epic level but it lacked the counterbalancing compassion of A Little Life. I certainly couldn't recommend it to anyone even after the tacked-on happily ever after epilogue. Harsh.
    • 4/5
      Sunjeev Sahota’s Booker Prize-shortlisted novel is a dramatic discourse on the immigrant experience in the 21st century. The story follows the fortunes of three young men—Tochi, Randeep and Avtar—who risk everything to journey to the UK from India in the hope of building better lives for themselves and, in the case of Randeep and Avtar, their families. The three come from vastly different backgrounds, but the thing they have most poignantly in common is an urgent desire to escape the humiliating and soul-crushing poverty that is sure to be their fate if they remain at home. In the attempt to improve their prospects, they follow the path taken by thousands if not millions before them: using various ruses (legal, semi-legal, outright criminal) to secure passage to England. Avtar poses as a student, Randeep takes a “visa wife,” Tochi is smuggled in as himself: a young illegal looking for work, any work. The bulk of the novel chronicles their adventures and hardships once they land in England as they seek employment and toil under a variety of circumstances and conditions, some demeaning, others not. Early in the novel, flashbacks provide context for their struggles and aspirations. We learn why they feel they have no choice, why for them remaining in India not an option. At the root of their experience as immigrants is the desperation they share with countless others, their dogged persistence in the search for a way to earn money against extreme odds, their willingness to do anything—cheating, lying, stealing, and even using cruel or underhanded means to eke out an advantage over others of their kind. For Tochi, Randeep and Avtar money equals freedom. Money is the only way out from under a system that, if it could, would keep their stomachs empty and hold their faces in the dirt until their last breath. Money is the only way to gain legitimacy and no longer fear the knock on the door in the middle of the night. The other main character, Narinder, a second-generation UK native of Punjabi descent, is driven by strong faith and guilt over her privileged lifestyle to help those in need. In defiance of her family’s plans for her—as an act of mercy rather than of the heart—she agrees to marry Randeep so he can enter the UK legally. As a writer, Sahota’s prose is not elegant. The literary flourishes are few. Instead, he builds atmosphere by layering detail upon detail. The Indian countryside is barren, hot, dusty, the cities pungent, crowded and raucous. Sheffield, England, where much of the action takes place over the year of the title, is damp and dreary, frigid and unforgiving. The triumph of The Year of the Runaways is its human element. Not all of Sahota’s characters are likeable, but when they behave badly he makes sure we understand why. This is an absorbing novel that puts a human face on an ongoing modern tragedy.
    • 4/5
      I'm a little in two minds about this bleak tragicomic page turner, set in the netherworld of Indian Sikhs working illegally at the margins of British society, and their hopes, dreams, motivations, problems and impossible choices. If you ignore the moments of comedy, it would be relentlessly depressing but very moving. Sahota is a gifted story teller and succeeds in making you care about the characters despite the horrific nature of many of their experiences. I did feel that given the number of Punjabi and Sikh words and phrases that are liberally sprinkled, a glossary would have been very useful. So thought provoking and moving if a little caricatured, but I'm not sure I could describe it as an enjoyable read overall.
    • 4/5
      Finally, I am able to read the last of the 2015 Man Booker shortlist. I make it a point to read the whole list before the prize is awarded, but American publication dates make that difficult sometimes. The Year of the Runaways, a novel about Indian refugees in England, was this year's holdout: the book that wouldn't be published in the States until months after the award.So I read the book and, finally, I'm getting around to this review. It's been more than a month since I finished The Year of the Runaways. As I look back, I'm struggling to remember what it was I even read.It's not that The Year of the Runaways wasn't memorable in any way. Some of the scenes and characters really stuck with me. It's just that The Year of the Runaways is such a sprawling story and those moments are sometimes few and far between. What lies between these moments is not ornate or profound, but just the simple telling of a story. There's nothing quotable here. Nothing one can point to as a defining unique characteristic of the novel. It's surprisingly uncomplicated for a Man Booker nominee. Despite this simplicity, the story is well told. It's smooth even as it makes jumps in time, place, and character. The subject is certainly poignant, but it's questionable whether The Year of the Runaways has long-term staying power. One may equate it with The King's Speech in a year that also brought cutting-edge films such as The Social Network and Black Swan, or Argo in a year with such a visually stunning feat as Life of Pi. These historical, plot-driven movies were enough for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to take notice, but it seems the Man Booker judges were looking for something more.
    • 4/5
      The Year of Runaways, Sunjeev Sahota, author; Sartaj Garewal, narratorThere is no work in India. Those who might offer employment blame the coming elections for the lack of jobs. The country is in turmoil. Indian families depend on their children for economic aid and support. Often, a child is responsible for the education of his younger siblings, as well. The burden is enormous. Even girls are driven to find work, in some cases in very unsuitable positions. Desperation drives them all to seek alternative ways to help their starving families. They believe their fortunes will improve in England where they have heard there is work. However, conditions there are grave for the new arrivals. Work is not plentiful, but scarce. Often they are preyed upon by those stronger and with more power. Some are illegal and subject to threats and blackmail. They frequently are forced to live in hiding and some wind up as captives. Their families back in India are not concerned with how the money is derived; they are only concerned with getting it and spending it. Often they turn a blind eye to the suffering of the child that is helping them, instead, they just accept the benefits provided, as if there was no dramatic cost to their son or daughter. In this book, few good deeds go unpunished. In this book, sometimes those least deserving prosper, while those who work harder are driven down even further by their burdens.When these runaways arrive in England, they immediately look for work. Some employers, aware of their desperate circumstances, try to cheat them and pay them poorly, some are kind and even lend them money, still, luck seems to evade most of them and their situations do not improve. Their situations are ghastly. Some are accosted by thugs and bullies who use heavy handed tactics to blackmail them; some are robbed. Some are preyed upon by landlords who know they are illegal. Some are humiliated because of their status, their caste, and they cannot escape the shame of it.There are some organizations and an occasional kind person who does not abuse them. Instead they provide them with food and sometimes a place to sleep and wash up. Mostly though, the characters in this novel live in squalor and face hardship. However, in some cases, even those terrible conditions are an improvement over what they had experienced at home, in India. Their hopeless condition causes them to fight among themselves and use each other without regard for anyone else’s safety. They are rude to each other, use crude language to appear braver than they are, behave cruelly and inhumanely toward friends and enemies alike. They seem to have little remorse or conscience because of their desolation and fear. Most have no social conscience and are very naïve having never been exposed to the developed world before. They are, therefore, very easy prey.Although the story is overrun with characters, it concentrates on Randeep Sanghera, once a student, his “visa wife”, Narinder Kaur a young woman who agreed to the arrangement because she was filled with guilt because of the tragic death of a “friend’s brother”, Avtar Nijjar, Randeep’s friend who traveled with Randeep to England and who has a student visa, and Tochi (Tarlochan Kumar), his very angry and aloof roommate who is hiding the fact that he suffered a great tragedy, is of a very low caste and has no visa.All of the characters are in desperate need, in danger of being sent back to India. All earn very little and live from hand to mouth, scrabbling every day to make money to pay off debts and fees, to have enough money to send home, and sometimes, even for themselves. They choose accommodations to live in that the board of health would shut down in any country if they knew of it and often, they skimp, even on food. Each of them has a tragic story. In their normal lives, violence is accepted, stealing is accepted, racism is accepted. Although religious, they don’t seem to be governed by a G-d that demands compassion. They simply believe in a G-d that will provide. As a result, they often rely on unreal expectations. Some have been so disillusioned that they have turned away from their religion. Some take it to the extreme.I found the book really confusing because of the number of characters, the strangeness of the names and places, and the many phrases that were not translated into English. The story jumped around from character to character, place to place and even time frame to time frame. Its redeeming feature for me, and the reason I rated it highly, is the fact that I learned so much about the lives of those who runaway and also about their lives in India. The book presents a picture of the way those in different economic circumstances and different castes treat each other. It presented a very clear image of the violence during the time of turmoil in the book. The cruelty and coldness of those who had more advantages was shocking. The fact that those of lesser castes accepted their status readily, for the most part, was also disturbing and bewildering. The cruelty they were willing to inflict upon each other in the name of self-righteousness, religion or need, was very unjustified as far as I was concerned. Their selfishness reached new heights. The author did not paint a pretty picture. It was difficult to find a character to admire or even like.These young people were victims of their times. Having never known abundance, they were satisfied with far less, and they were grateful for small kindnesses. Politics and penury had defeated them in their own country, and then even England revisited the same pain upon them. They were forced, in both countries, to humble themselves and beg for a job, money or mercy. Still, some refused to be defeated. In the end, I wondered if what they achieved was worth the price they paid, the suffering, the danger, the fear they were forced to endure. Was it perhaps futile, since they seemed to wind up exactly where they were before they ran away? Their world views remained the same. Yet, on the other hand, some of the characters did move on, and after some years, were able to find better jobs back home when the situation in India improved. They were able to maintain what they considered a better lifestyle than the one they had prior to their leaving. Certainly, though, they did not achieve a level anyone living in the developed world would happily accept.Although the women in the book appeared to be of a less powerful class, they seemed to exert a great deal of influence and have a lot to say. They did seem preoccupied with anger and envy, however, in the same way as some of the men did, but their remarks seemed only biting and their behavior arrogant, while the men’s comments seemed more cutting and their behavior seemed more cruel and violent. The often unrecognizable names and expressions created a language barrier that would have been easier to deal with in a print edition, although the narrator was very good, speaking in a well modulated tone at a steady pace with appropriate stress and expression.I found the book extremely informative. It even illustrated a moment in time when the young people who were engaging in this dangerous, illegal behavior, began to question whether or not they were aiding their families out of love or out of a sense of duty, and after awhile they even began to question their own actions. They were placing themselves in great danger and to what end?
    • 5/5
      A moving and heartfelt story about 3 Indian migrants, Randeep, Avtar & Tochi, & the struggles they face for daily survival in the UK. Interspersed with their stories is Narinder, a young British Asian, who marries Randeep, one of the young men, in a fake marriage so he can get papers to stay in the UK. Very intense and gripping but also bleak.
    • 5/5
      Rip my heart out, why don't you? This story of three Indian men, exiles trying to survive in London, is brutal. Dalit Tochi, whose family was destroyed in an anti-low caste "purity" riot back in Bihar, tries to hide his caste in London and keeps himself removed from all other countrymen. Randeep gets a "marriage visa" with Narinder, an unselfish and devout Sikh woman who enters into the one year commitment only to help him to better himself and so that he can obtain citizenship papers. Avtar is a formerly middle class college student whose family at home can no longer afford to support him abroad, even after he sold a kidney for his airfare. Economic and medical disasters at home in India force all three young men to seek work of any kind just to stay alive through the frigid English winter, all the while still trying to assist their families. It's "Nickeled and Dimed", and worse. Narinder is the truly unselfish hero who risks the social condemnation of her father and brother in India by postponing her marriage and taking a job, but her disillusionment wrenches her from her religious beliefs. One constant in all books I've read about Indian culture is the imperative to keep one's family surrounded by the approbation of neighbors and family. This overwhelming pressure alone is enough to force poor decisions. The trials of all four characters are brutally and realistically portrayed. It's not that nobody knows the trouble they've seen - it's worse: everyone knows and no one cares. I would say that any refugee from countries like Syria, Afghanistan, and Eritrea sadly shares this same heartbreaking story.A glossary would have been helpful.
    • 4/5
      preferred the first half to the second. found most of the characters not very likeable. the book made me angry at the conditions and lives people are forced to live - so the lack of likeability of the characters is understandable given their lives, but still not excusable
    • 4/5
      Bought this so savouring.
    • 5/5
      I finished the Booker nominated The Year of the Runaways. I have a bad record with critically acclaimed books about illegal migrants. Too close to home, perhaps, all that Dickensian grimness in supposedly 21st century Britain. I loved this though, four very different experiences of illegal moves to Britain, with a focus on the perpetuation of much of the inequalities of Indian society. I was gripped by all the narratives, but particularly that of Naurinder, whose apparently elite status is accompanied by barriers of a different kind to the three young men who make it to Sheffield. There are wonderful descriptions of temple life, as well as believable accounts of different working experiences. The recent legislation against modern slavery makes the slum like living conditions, forced imprisonment and desperate working circumstances sadly authentic.'My family's Kumar.' He kept his eyes on her but it was almost as if she didn't care. Perhaps these English-born types didn't understand. 'It's a chamaari name,' he clarified. Still he saw no change in her face, no recalibration in her eyes.
    • 4/5
      This is primarily the story of Tochi, Avtar, Randeep and Narinder. The first three are young men who have come over from India, looking for a better life for them and their families and are all living and working together. Tochi is illegal, Avtar has a student visa and Randeep has a marriage visa. He is married to Narinder.This book got off to a slow start and I did wonder if I could carry on with it. Part of the problem for me was the large amount of Indian terminology that I just didn't understand and a glossary would have been useful. But I'm so glad I persevered because I got used to it and really enjoyed this quite sad tale. Most of the story is about how the characters fare in England, and mostly in Sheffield, but there are three quite lengthy segments looking at how the characters found themselves here.Their stories gradually drew me in until I really cared about them and hoped they would find the better life they were looking for. I felt their desperation and disappointment when trying to find work and fit in with their cultural differences and I also enjoyed reading about their lives in India. A very good read.