SIMON: It is difficult, and I say this with admiration, to read about the total subjugation. You know, I would certainly feel free to call it a criminal subjugation of three women in a house. It's hard not to reflect on that part of what draws you in is it's hard for the great-grandson to understand how people lived. And yet, we're still - these generations are wound up with each other, aren't we? The first sentence reads, “Mehar is not so obedient a fifteen-year-old that she won’t try to uncover which of the three brothers is her husband.” More in-depth thoughts to follow on https://thereadersroom.org/ where I am serving as a member of a panel (to analyze the Booker Prize). The real strength is the links though of ideas and themes between the two stories - a desire for belonging, identity, connection and of grasping for some form of self-determination in the face of societal prejudice and expectations. Mehar has her freedom constrained by a very prescribed role set out for her, the narrator and his parents by contrast when they move are constrained by the fact that they are seen as not having any welcome role at all to play in the life of the town. Both storylines are interesting and compliment each other. The first, being Punjab and 1929, explores themes of religion and caste. The terrible treatment of the women, who are essentially slaves in almost every facet of their lives, including sex. The birth of a son paramount to the patriarchal mother “Mai”.

Mehar and two other young girls are married off in a single ceremony to three brothers. Their oppressive and controlling new mother-in-law, Mai, keeps them in the dark as to which of the brothers each has actually married. Their only encounters with their new husbands happen in the dark, behind closed doors, as they attempt to bear sons for the family. SAHOTA: Yeah, sure, so it's a photo of my great-grandmother holding me when I was a very newborn. And the photo was always there in my mind, and in my mind, it was always at the end of the book has a way of knotting these two stories together - the story of a great-grandmother, a story of Mehar, as you outlined, which is loosely based on a family legend of mine or my family's, some piece of lore about a great-grandmother who didn't know which of four brothers actually, in fact, was her husband. I admit that I am an unabashed Indophile, so much so that all my cats are named after Bollywood actresses - so I was, I guess, predisposed to enjoy this, since many of my favorite books ( A Suitable Boy; Manil Suri's Hindu Gods Trilogy; everything by Anuradha Roy, etc) are by Indian authors and/or about Indian subjects. However, Sahota's last (also Booker nommed) novel I was decidedly ambivalent about, finding it difficult in places, and not quite so engaging as his latest. The author was discussing his ideas for a third novel in interviews around 2015 but in time the form of the novel changed – originally it had been intended as a magic realism novel roaming across time and with a rather broad sense of place, but it has ended as a much quieter novel, while still drawing on the same genesis - a family legend about his great-grandmother, who with three other women was married to four brothers – but “None of them knew which man she was married to ….because they had to remain veiled the whole time. There was no electricity. It was in the middle of nowhere on a rural farmstead and they didn’t know who was the husband, so the story goes.” The follow-up to his Booker Prize-shortlisted The Runaways, Sunjeev Sahota's new novel follows characters across generations and continents (from Punjab to rural England) and is equally heart-wrenching." --Entertainment WeeklyAbbott, James Archer (2007). The Presidential Dish: Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and the White House China Room. Woodrow Wilson House; National Trust for Historic Preservation. OCLC 500849758. A story of forbidden love that echoes across generations - from the prize-winning author of The Year of the Runaways. A quiet, restrained and understand novel set in early and late 20th century rural India through two members of one family: Mehar is a teenage bride who is married to one of three brothers in a Punjab family in 1929. The two other brothers are also married in the same ceremony to two other young women, and due to this - and the fact that the wives lead separate lives from their husbands and their encounters are only in darkened rooms - she does not know which brother she is married to. Mehar tries to figure out which brother she is married to, and this discovery changes the path of her life. Two different time periods….1920’s and 1990’s…between India and England…inspired by the authors own history. The bulk of the book is the story of Mehar in 1929 Punjab. On her wedding day, she and two other women were married to three brothers. But none of the women knows which brother is her husband and the domineering family matriarch keeps the women separate except when the men visit in darkness attempting to conceive a child, preferably a son. Mehar wants to know which man is her husband and starts to note evidence until she comes to a conclusion. This conclusion sets the main story in this part of the book in motion.

However in a nutshell, I really loved reading this book. I'm not sure if it is original enough to win a big prize like the Booker, but I love books set in India ( A Fine Balance, Shantaram, The White Tiger to name a few). This is a quieter, character-driven book, focused on emotions, specifically yearning . . .and books like that are my favorite. The writing reminded me a bit of Khaled Hosseini.SIMON: And do I have this right? I have read that you were a math student who didn't read a novel yourself until you were 18, and you bought "Midnight's Children" in an airport. SAHOTA: No. So the main reason why, in the book, the women are brought into the family is to bear children. And by that, I mean to bear sons. And Mai, the mother-in-law, controls very much when those encounters between husband and wives take place and where they take place as well. So the tap on the shoulder is a way, again, for her to exert her control over all these young lives.

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 MEMORIAL SIMON: Yeah. And when we use a verb like given, any resemblance to property is intended, I guess, isn't it?The writing is strong. It is understated rather than showy and it evokes a real atmosphere, especially in Mehar’s story. I can easily imagine this book being made into a movie. For me, the 1990s story felt a bit under-developed or rushed. It’s not often I say this, but it is only a short book and I felt it could have been longer with the two parts more equal in length.

Both storylines converge in themes of escape and incarceration, whether literal or social and psychological. The narrator, living alone on the abandoned farm, having been shunned by his aunt and uncle, plays out an almost parodic tale of regeneration and reconnection that echoes Mehar’s less successful attempts at self-determination; their familial link hovers over the entire story, reminding us of the ghost-trauma carried from generation to generation. There was one photo that I’d focus on, a small picture in a dark-wood frame. It was of my great grandmother, an old white haired woman who’d travelled all the way to England just so they she might hold me ………… The photo hung there quietly as I sat at the table, opened up my laptop and started to write ………… I’d been clearing the ground the better to see what was in front of me, which was the past. All sorts of pasts in fact, including the one that found me rehabilitating on a farm in India, in 1999, the summer after I turned eighteen. Two storylines are interwoven in this engaging novel from Sunjeev Sahota. The first is set in 1929 and examines the fate of 15-year-old Mehar. Along with two other girls, she has been married to three brothers in rural Punjab, but the identity of her husband is kept from her. Mistakenly believing it to be Suraj, the youngest sibling, she gives herself to him one afternoon, and a relationship blossoms despite the circumstances. In the present day, the narrator recalls the summer of 1999, when he travelled to the same part of India to stay with his uncle, in an attempt to battle his drug addiction. He turns out to be the great grandson of Mehar and is fascinated to hear stories of his ancestor that echo through the village. Assisted by a beguiling local doctor, he takes it upon himself to redevelop the crumbling house in which she lived, including the china room in which the three wives once slept. The whole concept of the girls not knowing their husbands leading to trouble (which kind of trouble you can very well imagine upfront) feels very YA to me, maybe fitting for a 15 year old main character, but still I can hardly believe when living in such a tight circle of 7 persons that one would make the mistake Mehar makes. Gender-power, freedom, oppression, segregation, racism, betrayal, secrets, addiction, identity, and love are themes in this family saga historical novel.SAHOTA: Yeah, very much so - this idea of dramatic truth, this idea of watching people struggle with going through life. So mine enables me to live my own life in a better and more self-aware way, I think. I still to this day derive a great deal of solace and hope from reading novels. It seems to me like reading novels is a perfectly viable way to spend your life, really (laughter). SAHOTA: Yeah, she's a really brave, courageous, strong-willed, independent-minded young woman. And she's not willing to sort of settle for the cards she's been dealt. And she wants to know which of these three men is her husband. But more than that, it's about her coming to a place where she takes control of her personhood, of her right to feel desire. And, you know, it kind of all starts to take effect when a priest says that if you sleep with some pearls that night, it'll help you conceive. And the pearls lead to a mistake, and the repercussions kind of carry on from there. SIMON: Yes, well, let's hope (laughter). I think that would be wonderful. Sunjeev Sahota, his novel "China Room" - thank you so much for being with us.