Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Sanjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways is a fierce, political novel. Three men from India and one Sikh woman from London arrive in Sheffield, England early in this century. The men are on fraudulent visas and the woman, Narinder, is helping out one of them by being a straw wife for a marriage visa. While Narinder slowly comes out into the world from her sheltered existence with a gentle father and angry brother, the men all work menial, physically demanding jobs and live in squalid conditions. Raids, gangsters, and crooked employers add to their burden. There is also the dilemma of maintaining one's culture in a new place, or if one even wants to. While not the fastest read, this novel is certainly compelling, and you care about these downtrodden characters reaching for the sky.
While decidedly lighter in tone, Marriage Material by Sathnam Sangera also involves immigrants in an industrial town in Britain. Arjan Banga leaves a good job in London to take over the family store in Wolverhampton, delaying his marriage to a white woman. As the story unwinds, Arjan reveals how he is the product of not only the events of the 1960s and 70s but also his Sikh family, particularly his mother and aunt. Will he marry his fiancée? Will his childhood friends ever grow up? You'll just have to spend some time with the sardonic, engaging Arjan.
Ananda, the protagonist in Amit Chaudheri's Odysseus Abroad, came to university in London to become a world-famous poet. It has not worked out that way. Dismissive of Western poetry in favor of the epics of India, he spends a day running errands and visiting his uncle. While owing a great deal to Joyce's Ulysses, there are allusions ranging from the Mahabharata to Stephen King. Set in the Thatcher era, this novel covers the big themes in a lyrical, highly descriptive style.
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