China Room

Sunjeev Sahota’s writing is the stuff of miracles. Emotional and heartrending, China Room juggles questions of love, debt, and what it means to build a home alongside the history that carries us. China Room is a propulsive dream, intricately wrought, and Sahota is a maestro. – Bryan Washington, author of LOT and MEMORIALChina Room is a rare novel that makes you pause in its beauty. – Francesca Carington * Sunday Telegraph, Novel of the Week *Sahota is a truly original novelist, his prose sparingly precise in its beauty, steeped in kindness and deep humanity. – Ruth Scurr * TLS *With poise, restraint and deep intelligence, Sahota feeds us big, difficult themes - segregation and freedom, revolution and empire - in a form that is unsweetened, fresh and nourishing. Surely this, his third novel, will propel him up the shortlists to the prizewinning status he deserves. – Melissa Katsoulis * The Times, ‘This Book Will Win Prizes’ *An extraordinarily gifted writer… Sahota’s ability to shine a phrase is not bought for the usual steep formalist price, at the expense of simplicity, intimate feeling, and solid representation. He’s both camera and painter, in a literary world that often separates those novelistic tasks. – James Wood * New Yorker *Sahota combines great writing with amazing storytelling… his books are intelligent and beautifully written and very poised but also incredibly immersive, gripping and very moving. An epic in miniature, China Room is the kind of novel that reminds you why you fell in love with reading in the first place. – Open Book * BBC Radio 4 *Novels this good are rare. – Anthony Cummins * Daily Mail, Summer Reads of 2021 *Sahota’s prose is a finely modulated instrument that moves from subtle minutiae to cosmic magnitude… Exhibiting the narrative control and psychological acuity of Rohinton Mistry and Jhumpa Lahiri, Sahota’s tale of trans-generational trauma is quietly devastating. – Madeleine Feeny * Spectator *Sahota’s beautifully crafted novel dovetails two stories from different eras… Both characters are prisoners of circumstances but, in their hunger for redemption, become emblematic of the human condition. – Max Davidson * Mail on Sunday *

Such a thrilling combination of beauty and heartbreak. It’s breathtaking.

Sunjeev Sahota is the highly acclaimed author of Ours Are the Streets, The Year of the Runaways and China Room. The Year of the Runaways was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize and the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and won the Encore Prize, the South Bank Sky Arts Award, and the European Union Prize for Literature. China Room was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Sahota was chosen as one of the Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2013 and is a fellow of the RSL. He lives in Sheffield and teaches at Durham University. The Spoiled Heart is his fourth novel.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.