Sunjeev Sahota, 40 is an Indian-origin British author longlisted for the prestigious 2021 Booker Prize which includes a prize of 50,000 Pounds (Rs 37,21,752) for fiction for his novel ‘China Room’. He is among the 13 contenders, including Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers and Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro.
After the judges evaluated more than 150 novels published in Britain or Ireland from October 2020 to September 2021, the list of 13 novels was announced on July 27, 2021.
Sahota was also nominated in 2015 for his book The Year of the Runaways where he was shortlisted. ‘China Room’ is inspired by the author’s family in part. It pursues different generations across different continents. The multi-generational story follows rural Northern India in 1929 and the social deprivation of Britain in 1999.
Sahota’s first publication, ‘Ours are the streets’ also followed the same scheme while shining a light on the darker aspects of the British Asian experience.
The judging panel for this year’s longlist include Historian Maya Jasanoff (chair); Writer and former Archbishop Rowan Williams; Writer and Editor Horatia Harrod; actor Natascha McElhone and twice Booker-shortlisted novelist and professor Chigozie Obioma.
Sahota was born in 1981 in Derby and lived there in his formative years. He lived in Normanton, a multiracial neighbourhood. Both of his parents were Punjabi immigrants and they had to leave Normanton when he was seven as both of his parents lost their working-class jobs.
They moved to Chesterfield as his parents bought a shop. This exposed the family to a lot of Prejudice as Sahota and his brother were the only brown kids in the school. He says that there was a lot of disaffection from the white community which was originated from the dissatisfaction that was based on a lack of self-worth, a lack of jobs rather than anything to do with the race
Before going to university, Sahota discovered literature. He studied at Imperial College. He realised the true meaning of words could be conveyed from the writer to the readers.
He is an assistant professor at Durham University and lives in a middle-class suburb of Sheffield. His wife is an accountant in the local government, while their three kids go to ‘a diverse school’ according to The Guardian. His parents still run the shop in Chesterfield.
Indian-origin Sunjeev Sahota a contender for Fiction Booker Prize
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