The heart-stopping political novel about the desperate life of illegal immigrants, from one of Granta's Best of British Novelists.

'Sahota knows how to light up a scene, how to make you stay up late at night. A brilliant and beautiful novel' Guardian Tochi, Avtar and Randeep have fled India for a new home in England, where, bound by secrets, haunted by history, and in pursuit of hope, they try to find a toehold in a country that seems utterly foreign. Tochi and Avtar have no real papers, but Randeep is the lucky one, married to Narinder, his visa-wife living on the other side of town. She has her own reasons for trying to help him. But what price have they paid for their dreams? 'So rich, so absorbing . . . Characters you grow to love and truly care for. You cry because you just don't want this book to end' Spectator 'Should be compulsory reading. A magnificent achievement' Daily Mail 'A rich, intricate, beautifully written novel, bursting and seething with energy' The Times 'Nothing short of an asteroid impact would have made me put the book down' Irish Times

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Sweeping between India and England, from childhood and the present day. Sunjeev Sahota's unforgettable novel about illegal immigrants is a story of dignity in the face of adversity. For fans of Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance.

'The Grapes of Wrath for the 21st century' – Washington Post

The Year of the Runaways tells of the bold dreams and daily struggles of an unlikely family thrown together by circumstance.

Thirteen young men live in a house in Sheffield, each in flight from India and in desperate search of a new life. Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his past in Bihar. Avtar has a secret that binds him to protect the chaotic Randeep. Randeep, in turn, has a visa-wife in a flat on the other side of town: a clever, devout woman whose cupboards are full of her husband's clothes, in case the immigration men surprise her with a call.

'A writer who knows how to make you stay up late at night to learn what happens next . . . a brilliant and beautiful novel' – author of Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie, Guardian