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China Room

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China Room

By: Sunjeev Sahota
Narrated by: Indira Varma, Antonio Aakeel
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021.

A multigenerational novel of love, oppression, trauma and the pursuit of freedom, inspired in part by the author's own family history, China Room twines together the stories of a woman and a man separated by more than half a century but united by blood.

Mehar, a young bride in rural 1929 Punjab, is trying to discover the identity of her new husband. She and her sisters-in-law, married to three brothers in a single ceremony, spend their days hard at work in the family's 'china room', sequestered from contact with the men. When Mehar develops a theory as to which of them is hers, a passion is ignited that will put more than one life at risk.

Spiralling around Mehar's story is that of a young man who in 1999 travels from England to the now-deserted farm, its 'china room' locked and barred. In enforced flight from the traumas of his adolescence—his experiences of addiction, racism and estrangement from the culture of his birth—he spends a summer in painful contemplation and recovery, before finally finding the strength to return 'home'.

©2021 Sunjeev Sahota (P)2021 Penguin Audio
20th Century Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Multicultural Romance

What listeners say about China Room

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Amazing story beautifully written

I really liked Indira Varma’s narration but wasn’t impressed by Antonio Aakeel. He was very wooden and inexpressive. It was hard at time to distinguish between the characters.

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India at heart

This story telling is up to that of the great V S Naipaul. Engaging and educational.

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