Asian American Literature Fans

A Review of Sunjeeva Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways (Knopf, 2016).
By Stephen Hong Sohn

Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, Sunjeeva Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways is his first stateside publication, though he is also author of Ours are the Streets, which I promptly looked for as a used copy in the hopes that I can get a copy of this work. The Year of the Runaways is a perfectly apt title for a book that focuses on four South Asians who come to England, all under very different circumstances, but all in ways that suggest they are “runaways.”

To discuss their trajectories, one necessarily has to spoil some of the information, but before we get to this work, let us allow B&N to do give us all some editorial context: “Three young men, and one unforgettable woman, come together in a journey from India to England, where they hope to begin something new—to support their families; to build their futures; to show their worth; to escape the past. They have almost no idea what awaits them. In a dilapidated shared house in Sheffield, Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his life in Bihar. Avtar and Randeep are middle-class boys whose families are slowly sinking into financial ruin, bound together by Avtar’s secret. Randeep, in turn, has a visa wife across town, whose cupboards are full of her husband’s clothes in case the immigration agents surprise her with a visit. She is Narinder, and her story is the most surprising of them all. The Year of the Runaways unfolds over the course of one shattering year in which the destinies of these four characters become irreversibly entwined, a year in which they are forced to rely on one another in ways they never could have foreseen, and in which their hopes of breaking free of the past are decimated by the punishing realities of immigrant life. A novel of extraordinary ambition and authority, about what it means and what it costs to make a new life—about the capaciousness of the human spirit, and the resurrection of tenderness and humanity in the face of unspeakable suffering.”

Shattering is a pretty good description for that year; all characters are pretty tragic in their own ways, and I found parts of this novel fairly depressing. There’s quite a bit of cultural knowledge that one may unfortunately lack before reading this work. I found myself struggling with certain terminologies. For instance, I didn’t know that the term chamar was used to describe the caste that has been more familiarly known as the “untouchables.” During one of India’s many religious riots, Tarlochan and his family are brutally and horrifically targeted. Tarlochan, aka Tochi, leaves for India in the wake of this tragedy. For his part, Avtar wants to be able to provide for his family, while also properly courting a wife. His romantic object is none other than the sister of Randeep, who himself is struggling because his father is suffering from a mental illness that has destabilized their financial situation. For Avtar to get the funds to travel to England, he sells his kidney on the black market, while Randeep is able to negotiate his way to England via a sham VISA marriage.

Narinder’s story concerns guilt that stems from the death that might have been avoided had she agreed to help a friend. The novel ultimately hinges on Narinder’s presence: she is the glue that ends up bringing all four characters, however disparate in their interests, together. Her depiction is in part what really lifts Sahota’s story to a different register, but it is Narinder’s philosophical and spiritual beliefs that are put to the test in the course of this difficult, but luminous novel. While some of the narrative threads no doubt dovetail with common immigrant tropes, Sahota’s depictions and sure-footed focus on the existential and material reasons behind transnational movements make this novel rise above so many similar ones. Readers are motivated to consider Narinder’s motives as both naïve, yet touching, and Sahota’s epilogue, though rushed, serves to show us that her purpose and quest, however flawed, somehow still manages to succeed. Sahota thus provides a measure of closure without settling it in a maudlin, unrealistic way. Characters survive and perhaps even succeed, but often at great cost.

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Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Gnei Soraya Zarook

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at ssohnucr@gmail.com
Gnei Soraya Zarook, PhD Student in English, at gzaro001@ucr.edu