China Room

Read the heart-stopping new novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of The Year of the Runaways

‘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 breathtaking novel of love, family and the pursuit of freedom, 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 rural 1929 Punjab, 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 will put 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, finally gathering the strength to return home.