jessievei's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
prajnya's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
amina_miah's review against another edition
4.0
A pragmatic insight into the world of economic migrants, faith, and relationships, told beautifully, despite the bitter taste it leaves.
This story came to mirror my own (not a carbon copy, an inverted one) and so I gleaned a lot of wisdom from this novel.
This story came to mirror my own (not a carbon copy, an inverted one) and so I gleaned a lot of wisdom from this novel.
agalles's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 maybe. not a happy book by any means but a good reminder of what some go through to have the opportunities i take for granted. Took me a bit to pick up the thread of the book and would be interesting to go back and read the beginning again but a worthwhile read.
nidhimahajn's review against another edition
5.0
The Dalit Subject in Sunjeev Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways.
While discussing his second novel, The Year of the Runaways (2015), Sunjeev Sahota, in an interview for The Independent, remarked, “If novels can do anything, it is shining a light into the dark tunnel, faces, histories, stories” (sic.). Sunjeev Sahota is a British author of Indian origins. His novel, The Year of the Runaways, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize 2015. The novel tells the story of four main characters. Tochi, Avtar, and Randeep are immigrants from India who travel to the United Kingdom in search of employment. Narinder is a devout “gursikh”, born and brought up in England, who becomes an agent in Randeep’s migration. The characters comes together to form a disjointed family under one roof. Tochi, in Sahota’s novel, can be read as a Dalit subject in a cosmopolitan setting.
Tochi’s identity can be understood in terms of three concentric circles, each corresponding to a subject position. The reader meets Tochi in the very first chapter, titled “Arrivals”, in Sahota’s novel. His caste identity, the first concentric circle, is revealed in the very beginning. “So what are you?” asks Gurpreet (a fellow-immigrant). When Tochi informs him that his “pind” (literally, village) is in Bihar and that his surname is Kumar, Gurpreet responds, “Even the bhanchod chamaars are coming to England.” The label “chamaar” locates Tochi at the very bottom of the Indian caste hierarchy.
The second concentric circle in Tochi’s identity formation is his position as a visa-less illegal immigrant in England, a “fauji” (literally, soldier) as Sahota’s novel terms them. The third concentric circle is that of the ethnic minority constituted by Indian immigrants in England, the “apneh” (literally, one’s own) in Sahota’s novel. Tochi’s status as an immigrant places him within the larger fold of this ethnic minority but his illegal status and his caste identity do not allow his assimilation within it.
This reading of Tochi’s identity in terms of three concentric circle ascribes a certain fixity to it. In the novel, these circles constantly overlap and intermix. It is Tochi’s movement from Bihar to cosmopolitan England that initiates complex process of identity construction through the interaction of these subject positions.
However, I think that his caste identity looms large despite the interactions. An important marker of his caste identity is his surname. “Mera naam he tho hai,” says Tochi to his friend Kishen; “Vho he tho hai mera naam,” Kishen replies. In this “schoolyard phrase” about “their names being all they owned,” Tochi highlights the baggage of the name that he carries. This baggage never leaves him. “My family’s Kumar,” he explains to “English-born” Narinder, “It’s a chamaari name.”
The two most popular models in postcolonial and diaspora studies, today, may be termed as the ‘Diasporic Imagination’ model and the ‘Hybridity’ model. The ‘Diasporic Imagination’ model assumes ‘home’ and ‘host’ to be imaginative categories. In “Imaginary Homelands”, Salman Rushdie describes the experience of travelling to Bombay and encountering his childhood home. Rushdie feels a “physical alienation” from his ‘home’ in Bombay, a ‘home’ which can only be reclaimed through memory and imagination.
In Sahota’s novel, Tochi associates ‘home’ with a horrific past, a past that he does not want to recall. He searches for a point where this ‘home’ ends, beyond which he is no longer bound by his caste: “It seemed amazing to him that there could be an end to India, one you could point to and identify and work towards.” Even in the ‘host’ country, he cannot escape this identity. Therefore, one finds the ‘Diasporic Imagination’ model inadequate in explaining the processes of identity construction for a Dalit subject in a cosmopolitan setting.
One of the most significant theorists of the ‘Hybridity’ model is Homi K. Bhabha. In The Location of Culture, Bhabha rejects the idea of an “originary” subject (taking cue from Michel Foucault and poststructuralism) and highlights the discursive, performative, and hybrid nature of modern subjectivity.
However, in understanding Tochi as a hybrid modern subject, I have asserted that his caste identity looms large. The ‘Hybridity’ model is limited in understanding a Dalit subject in a cosmopolitan setting as it often neglects and negates historical and political specificities (in this case, the caste system) as well as the continuing power relations among hybrid subjects (reflected in Tochi’s interactions with other characters in the novel).
Therefore, there is a need for revision of existing postcolonial discourses and for new and innovative models of understanding the convoluted processes of identity construction of modern subjects in a cosmopolitan world. As for the novel, Sahota has painted brilliant characters in complex situations. A very good book.
While discussing his second novel, The Year of the Runaways (2015), Sunjeev Sahota, in an interview for The Independent, remarked, “If novels can do anything, it is shining a light into the dark tunnel, faces, histories, stories” (sic.). Sunjeev Sahota is a British author of Indian origins. His novel, The Year of the Runaways, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize 2015. The novel tells the story of four main characters. Tochi, Avtar, and Randeep are immigrants from India who travel to the United Kingdom in search of employment. Narinder is a devout “gursikh”, born and brought up in England, who becomes an agent in Randeep’s migration. The characters comes together to form a disjointed family under one roof. Tochi, in Sahota’s novel, can be read as a Dalit subject in a cosmopolitan setting.
Tochi’s identity can be understood in terms of three concentric circles, each corresponding to a subject position. The reader meets Tochi in the very first chapter, titled “Arrivals”, in Sahota’s novel. His caste identity, the first concentric circle, is revealed in the very beginning. “So what are you?” asks Gurpreet (a fellow-immigrant). When Tochi informs him that his “pind” (literally, village) is in Bihar and that his surname is Kumar, Gurpreet responds, “Even the bhanchod chamaars are coming to England.” The label “chamaar” locates Tochi at the very bottom of the Indian caste hierarchy.
The second concentric circle in Tochi’s identity formation is his position as a visa-less illegal immigrant in England, a “fauji” (literally, soldier) as Sahota’s novel terms them. The third concentric circle is that of the ethnic minority constituted by Indian immigrants in England, the “apneh” (literally, one’s own) in Sahota’s novel. Tochi’s status as an immigrant places him within the larger fold of this ethnic minority but his illegal status and his caste identity do not allow his assimilation within it.
This reading of Tochi’s identity in terms of three concentric circle ascribes a certain fixity to it. In the novel, these circles constantly overlap and intermix. It is Tochi’s movement from Bihar to cosmopolitan England that initiates complex process of identity construction through the interaction of these subject positions.
However, I think that his caste identity looms large despite the interactions. An important marker of his caste identity is his surname. “Mera naam he tho hai,” says Tochi to his friend Kishen; “Vho he tho hai mera naam,” Kishen replies. In this “schoolyard phrase” about “their names being all they owned,” Tochi highlights the baggage of the name that he carries. This baggage never leaves him. “My family’s Kumar,” he explains to “English-born” Narinder, “It’s a chamaari name.”
The two most popular models in postcolonial and diaspora studies, today, may be termed as the ‘Diasporic Imagination’ model and the ‘Hybridity’ model. The ‘Diasporic Imagination’ model assumes ‘home’ and ‘host’ to be imaginative categories. In “Imaginary Homelands”, Salman Rushdie describes the experience of travelling to Bombay and encountering his childhood home. Rushdie feels a “physical alienation” from his ‘home’ in Bombay, a ‘home’ which can only be reclaimed through memory and imagination.
In Sahota’s novel, Tochi associates ‘home’ with a horrific past, a past that he does not want to recall. He searches for a point where this ‘home’ ends, beyond which he is no longer bound by his caste: “It seemed amazing to him that there could be an end to India, one you could point to and identify and work towards.” Even in the ‘host’ country, he cannot escape this identity. Therefore, one finds the ‘Diasporic Imagination’ model inadequate in explaining the processes of identity construction for a Dalit subject in a cosmopolitan setting.
One of the most significant theorists of the ‘Hybridity’ model is Homi K. Bhabha. In The Location of Culture, Bhabha rejects the idea of an “originary” subject (taking cue from Michel Foucault and poststructuralism) and highlights the discursive, performative, and hybrid nature of modern subjectivity.
However, in understanding Tochi as a hybrid modern subject, I have asserted that his caste identity looms large. The ‘Hybridity’ model is limited in understanding a Dalit subject in a cosmopolitan setting as it often neglects and negates historical and political specificities (in this case, the caste system) as well as the continuing power relations among hybrid subjects (reflected in Tochi’s interactions with other characters in the novel).
Therefore, there is a need for revision of existing postcolonial discourses and for new and innovative models of understanding the convoluted processes of identity construction of modern subjects in a cosmopolitan world. As for the novel, Sahota has painted brilliant characters in complex situations. A very good book.
debbiecuddy's review against another edition
4.0
Summer bingo-Prize runner-up (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2015)
I had a great deal of difficulty reading the beginning of this book due to the number of Punjabi words and my lack of knowledge of Punjabi culture and Sikhism. Once I was about halfway through, things began to fall into place and I couldn't put it down. This is a grim story and an important one, it shows the absolute despair that is pervasive in the lives of illegal immigrants. A glossary and a brief description of Sikhism would have added to my ease of reading this book, but maybe the author wrote it as he did so the readers might get a taste of some of the difficulties experienced by the characters in the novel.
I had a great deal of difficulty reading the beginning of this book due to the number of Punjabi words and my lack of knowledge of Punjabi culture and Sikhism. Once I was about halfway through, things began to fall into place and I couldn't put it down. This is a grim story and an important one, it shows the absolute despair that is pervasive in the lives of illegal immigrants. A glossary and a brief description of Sikhism would have added to my ease of reading this book, but maybe the author wrote it as he did so the readers might get a taste of some of the difficulties experienced by the characters in the novel.
kitty_kat21's review against another edition
3.0
Originally posted here
This was an interesting read. It tells the story of three Indian immigrants to Britain: Tochi, Randeep and Avtar. Each man has different personal circumstances and reasons for coming to Britain, but mainly there is no work to be had in India and they have heard that Britain is the best place to go for quick and easy money. Avtar has a dodgey student visa, Randeep has a dodgey marriage visa and Tochi has no visa whatsoever. The character of Narinder, a British-Indian completes this quartet as Randeep's visa wife, and she also has her own justifications for helping him. The three men end up living together in a squat in Sheffield, trampling each other to get the limited menial jobs available to them for much less than the minimum wage. Fear of a raid and suspicious of each other, unsurprisingly they soon realise that life in Britain can be just as hard as the life they left behind.
What I found interesting is the rejection the three of them experienced by members of their own community in places of refuge such as the local Gurdwaras; and it is often their kinsman who are exploiting them as cheap labour. My heart went out to them as they struggled in different ways. Avtar cannot pay back the loan sharks the debt he owes for buying his visa; Tochi is rejected constantly for being a member of the lowest caste in India; and kindhearted Randeep is constantly let down by Avtar and Tochi who he considers his friends. It's quite a bleak. Desperation turns to stealing and violence and there are many scenes that were hard to read.
Despite the interesting subject matter, there were a few things that dampened my enjoyment. There are many Punjabi words that are interspersed throughout the book and I had not a clue what a lot of them meant. There was no glossary and I wasn't able to decipher most of them from the context in which they were being used. I felt distanced by this and could not fully immerse myself in the story. Also, all of the characters were unlikeable in some degree as one of them commits attempted rape, another attempted murder, and the other steals a years worth of savings from one of the other two men. The novel also abruptly ends with an epilogue, ten years in the future where circumstances have drastically changed for the four characters with almost no explanation given. It was quite a strange ending.
I really felt like Sunjeev Sahota really did not shy away from telling the full truth of what many immigrants may go through and the depths of hardship and despair they have to endure. There is no doubt that this book feels very relevant to the current times, and I feel like the author's frustration really came through when the three men all realised the deep discrepancy of their expectation vs. reality.
jainoooor's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Well written, important stories shedding light on the struggles of new migrants/indian diaspora, just found it a bit slow at times and it was difficult to get through 16hrs of the audiobook
tarlochan (themes of caste discrimination and violence, illegal entry into UK, mainly looks out for himself only, though has a brief moment of developing feelings for narinder),
Avatar (older, hard working, came on student visa but then failed because he was too busy working, gets sick, in a relationship/eventually marries randeeps sister),
Randeep (marriage visa with narinder, young and naive, likes narinder),
Narinder (probably the most interesting story, UK born & bred, very religious but brought up in a very patriarchal family, marries randeep by running away from her family to make up for guilt over someone else committing suicide after she refused a fake marriage for visa, her journey of becoming independent and finding herself, divorced randeep almost immediately, goes back to care for family)
Spoiler
main characters-tarlochan (themes of caste discrimination and violence, illegal entry into UK, mainly looks out for himself only, though has a brief moment of developing feelings for narinder),
Avatar (older, hard working, came on student visa but then failed because he was too busy working, gets sick, in a relationship/eventually marries randeeps sister),
Randeep (marriage visa with narinder, young and naive, likes narinder),
Narinder (probably the most interesting story, UK born & bred, very religious but brought up in a very patriarchal family, marries randeep by running away from her family to make up for guilt over someone else committing suicide after she refused a fake marriage for visa, her journey of becoming independent and finding herself, divorced randeep almost immediately, goes back to care for family)
spinningonthatdizzyedge's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
katmackie's review against another edition
4.0
I was describing The Year of the Runaways excitedly to a friend this weekend after she asked me if it was good. She seemed interested, or at least roped in by my wide eyes and flailing arms. I asked her after I took a breath what she typically likes and she said: "It has to be happy." It made me think about what happy means in this book. The pursuit of it's characters is not as simple as happiness, nor is the word really used.
The Year of the Runaways is a stressful book to read, but an important one. Not only is it relevant, it's also necessary. I'll admit now, I don't think I would have picked this book up if it hadn't made the Man Booker Prize longlist (and now shortlist). I think that means as a reader I needed to experience it the most. So I'm relaying that thought to those who might feel the same. This book is Mariana Trench filled with struggle and life - and it will make you see the world a little differently. That is why it's important.
The story is page turning and hard to put down, but The Year of the Runaways is pretty straight forward in it's writing. With some books you have to take a minute before you begin the next chapter after reading something written so perfectly. With others, an event occurs or it's characters are thrown into a new dangerous plot that forces you take a minute to process. This is definitely a case of the latter. I think this has it's pros and cons, but I would have liked to see more of a balance as I hardly ever considered the writing.
Sahota has written something exciting and memorable. Whether you read it in a day or a month, the stories of this book won't leave you.
The Year of the Runaways is a stressful book to read, but an important one. Not only is it relevant, it's also necessary. I'll admit now, I don't think I would have picked this book up if it hadn't made the Man Booker Prize longlist (and now shortlist). I think that means as a reader I needed to experience it the most. So I'm relaying that thought to those who might feel the same. This book is Mariana Trench filled with struggle and life - and it will make you see the world a little differently. That is why it's important.
The story is page turning and hard to put down, but The Year of the Runaways is pretty straight forward in it's writing. With some books you have to take a minute before you begin the next chapter after reading something written so perfectly. With others, an event occurs or it's characters are thrown into a new dangerous plot that forces you take a minute to process. This is definitely a case of the latter. I think this has it's pros and cons, but I would have liked to see more of a balance as I hardly ever considered the writing.
Sahota has written something exciting and memorable. Whether you read it in a day or a month, the stories of this book won't leave you.