The Year of the Runaways

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very rich portrayal of Indians coming to England in search of employment and a better life. Three boys and one girl experience the hardships of immigration and try to balance their beliefs and traditions with their new surroundings. Some come in legally and others are not and one is already a citizen and works to help the others. We see how hard it is to get employment when they don't know the language very well and people are unwilling to help them out. Others are happy to help but can't do much besides have good intentions. Surprisingly, some of the greatest discrimination comes from among the Indian people themselves according to their caste. Each of the characters is fully drawn and the inclusion of a fair amount of vocabulary that is unique to India actually immersed me more fully instead of being distracting. It was interesting and eye-opening and I was drawn into their hardships and dreams fully. It ends rather abruptly, but there is an epilogue. The only problem is that the author didn't connect the way they ended up to that year. How did they get from there to here? Rather than resolving anything it left me with more questions.

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