⋙ Libro Gratis The Year Of The Runaways Sunjeev Sahota 9781447241645 Books

The Year Of The Runaways Sunjeev Sahota 9781447241645 Books

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The Year Of The Runaways Sunjeev Sahota 9781447241645 Books

This novel was challenging to read but not because of Sahota's writing skills. It takes the reader out of their comfort zone reading about the struggles of Indian immigrants to the UK, living on the border of legality if not illegal. It certainly asks you to rethink your views about "economic migrants".
The novel explores the circumstances which motivate each of the "runaways" to try their luck in Britain, believing as they do that jobs and money will be easily available, enabling them to help their families. Their lives in India are centred on family but constrained by social expectations and gossip. Expectations that the younger generation(male) will have brilliant careers and support their parents and younger siblings; fear of not maintaining a successful facade seems to dominate the lives of the mothers. Women have few opportunities beyond the hope for a satisfactory marriage. All the families' hopes are pinned on the young men who are driven to terrible lengths to realize these hopes.

The lives of the young men in England are increasingly driven by desperation- the relentless need to make enough money to support family and pay off debts. They are preyed on by their fellow countrymen who also live on the shady side of the law. They have no recourse to England's social services as most of them are terrified of being found and sent home.

The novel exposes some of the truly unpleasant aspects of Indian society as well as the hollowness of the dreams of wealth and status in England. Although the young mens' stories end well, the ending seems tacked on and seems hardly plausible, given their dire and hopeless circumstances. However, the novel is hugely engaging to read and each character's story( there is one woman) reveals another aspect of the endlessly fascinating culture of India.


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The Year Of The Runaways Sunjeev Sahota 9781447241645 Books Reviews

Sadly, people (immigrants especially) actually live this way. I feel that this book is an accurate portrayal of Indian culture, as well as the 'culture shock' that immigrants from India receive when they emigrate to other countries (in this case, Great Britain), expecting that they will find work and ultimately, happiness. It makes me question what more we can do to help those who are willing to work hard for a better life, whether in their own homelands or elsewhere. Life is so difficult for so many people around the world; they need HOPE in order to survive. (I gave this four stars instead of five, because, although I think Sahota is a fine writer and his story is important and engaging, it was difficult, sometimes, to understand everything that was going on because of my lack of understanding of the language.)
There's a lot to like about this book but it ultimately disappoints. The non-English words were not a problem at all and the author's prose was generally fluid and interesting. The stories of how the principal male characters wound up leaving India were terrific and did a nice job of capturing striking moments from contemporary India. But once they got to Britain, the story stalled somewhat and it was hard to keep the characters separate in one's mind. OK, sure, the point of this might be the author showing how once they join the stream of economic migrants to a Europe that doesn't want them, they all meld together and are no longer individuals but simply part of an indistinguishable crowd. Trouble is, nothing they do and nothing happens to them in England is remotely as interesting as their Indian pasts and these sections are tedious. I almost gave up and I never give up on books. It's as if the author is simply uninterested in what happens to them in Britain. For example, a secondary character is gravely injured in a fight and though the main characters deal with it, it's pretty much forgotten. The bright spot (and the main reason to read this book) is the story of Najinder, the female lead. She is not a migrant but herself British and her dilemmas and subsequent growth and sensitively rendered. She's basically invisibile for 60% of the book, but don't give up reading her story is worth the wait. Once you get to her section, the story excels for a while. Sorry to say, the ending is also very limp --- as if Sahota simply didn't know how to end it. I found the fates of the male characters uncompelling --- and in no way consistent with where they were when their narrative dropped off. Najinder's fate is a bit of a tease in that you might be hoping for one thing and get another, but honestly neither of the possible endings for her were particularly surprising. I'm glad I read this, but don't really see how/why it wound up on the Man/Booker shortlist.
An engrossing story in the tradition of the great 19th-century novels, packed with characters and conflicts and written in a clear, deceptively simple way. This is one of those novels where the author is invisible you don't hear his voice and there aren't a lot of quotable lines, but the impact is tremendous. It grows and builds rather than showing off.

The plot concerns the present-day adventures and background stories of a handful of Indian immigrants scraping out a tenuous living in England. There is nothing sensationalistic about the misery of life on the edge; instead, you realize that this kind of existence gradually wears people down, so that months and years pass before they realize they will never get anywhere. This seemed to be such a constant theme of the novel that I found the ending in some ways surprising and unrealistic, but perhaps I need to reread. By the end of the book, I trusted Sahota's depiction so thoroughly that I was willing to accept almost anything as truth, but I do wonder about the final chapter.

This is a novel for people who love traditional novels and yearn to read about sympathetic characters in believable situations. If this doesn't sound exciting, I'm not describing it well enough. The Year of the Runaways is my favorite book so far of 2016, and I highly recommend it for all ages and tastes.
This novel was challenging to read but not because of Sahota's writing skills. It takes the reader out of their comfort zone reading about the struggles of Indian immigrants to the UK, living on the border of legality if not illegal. It certainly asks you to rethink your views about "economic migrants".
The novel explores the circumstances which motivate each of the "runaways" to try their luck in Britain, believing as they do that jobs and money will be easily available, enabling them to help their families. Their lives in India are centred on family but constrained by social expectations and gossip. Expectations that the younger generation(male) will have brilliant careers and support their parents and younger siblings; fear of not maintaining a successful facade seems to dominate the lives of the mothers. Women have few opportunities beyond the hope for a satisfactory marriage. All the families' hopes are pinned on the young men who are driven to terrible lengths to realize these hopes.

The lives of the young men in England are increasingly driven by desperation- the relentless need to make enough money to support family and pay off debts. They are preyed on by their fellow countrymen who also live on the shady side of the law. They have no recourse to England's social services as most of them are terrified of being found and sent home.

The novel exposes some of the truly unpleasant aspects of Indian society as well as the hollowness of the dreams of wealth and status in England. Although the young mens' stories end well, the ending seems tacked on and seems hardly plausible, given their dire and hopeless circumstances. However, the novel is hugely engaging to read and each character's story( there is one woman) reveals another aspect of the endlessly fascinating culture of India.