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amyheap 's review for:
The Year of the Runaways
by Sunjeev Sahota
This is a detailed, almost relentlessly grim story of three young men who migrate from India to the UK in the search for opportunities, and a UK-born woman who helps one with a marriage visa. We move back and forth in time, and perspective as we learn about their lives in India, the various illegal ways they came to the UK, and their experiences trying to find work. It did put me in mind of Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, I suppose because of the continual striving in vain, but I found it far less depressing in the end, which isn't saying a lot. As well as the truly awful work and life situations, there is a lot of cultural detail, and untranslated Punjabi which I did enjoy. It is a moving story about Sikh culture and religion, what people can endure for family and duty, the experience of migration, and the need for hope.