China Room

von Sunjeev Sahota

Longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize, the breathtaking story of a woman and a man in pursuit of freedom'THE STUFF OF MIRACLES' Bryan Washington'A GORGEOUS, GRIPPING READ' Kamila Shamsie'I'M BLOWN AWAY BY IT' Tessa Hadley'NOVELS THIS GOOD ARE RARE' Daily Telegraph 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.