Gurnaik Johal – författare

FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF SARASWATI, SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT PRIZE'A debut collection of such precocity and aplomb that it stands comparison to the likes of Junot Díaz and Bryan Washington' Observer'Moving, truthful, straight from the heart' Neel Mukherjee'These are excellent stories, told with skill and verve' Jon McGregor'Delicate, controlled and moving' Colin BarrettHere, beneath the planes circling Heathrow, various lives connect. Priti speaks English and her nani Punjabi. Without Priti's mum around they struggle to make a shared language. Not far away, Chetan and Aanshi's relationship shifts when a woman leaves her car in their drive but never returns to collect it. Gujan's baba steps out of his flat above the chicken shop for the first time in years to take his grandson on a bicycle tour of the old and changed neighbourhood. And returning home after dropping out of university, Lata grapples with a secret about her estranged family friend, now a chart-topping rapper in a crisis of confidence.Mapping an area of West London, these stories chart a wider narrative about the movement of multiple generations of immigrants. In acts of startling imagination, Gurnaik Johal's debut brings together the past and the present, the local and the global, to show the surprising ways we come together.

AN OBSERVER BEST NEW NOVELIST 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2025 A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE INDEPENDENT, TELEGRAPH, NERVE AND GUARDIAN'An ambitious, stylishly delivered novel ... Reminiscent of Salman Rushdie' OBSERVER'Johal has written a major novel, and at his very first attempt' TELEGRAPH, 5-STAR REVIEW'Saraswati is a major achievement, and Johal a huge talent. One of the biggest novels of the year' Martin MacInnes, Booker-longlisted author of In AscensionCenturies ago, the myths say, the holy river Saraswati flowed through what is now Northern India. But when Satnam arrives in his ancestral village for his grandmother's funeral, he is astonished to find water in the long-dry well behind her house. The discovery sets in motion a contentious scheme to unearth the lost river and build a gleaming new city on its banks, and Satnam - adrift from his job, girlfriend and flat back in London - soon finds himself swept up in this ferment of Hindu nationalist pride.As the river alters Satnam's course, so it reveals buried ties to six distant relatives scattered across the globe - from an ambitious writer with her eye on legacy to a Kenyan archaeologist to a Bollywood stunt double - who are brought together in a rapidly changing India. Brimming with love, lush, violence and loss, Gurnaik Johal's magisterial debut deftly animates the passions that bind us to our histories, our lands and each other.

AN OBSERVER BEST NEW NOVELIST 2025 * A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE INDEPENDENT, TELEGRAPH, NERVE AND GUARDIAN *SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2026LONGLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PROSE PRIZE 2026'An ambitious, stylishly delivered novel ... Reminiscent of Salman Rushdie' OBSERVER'Johal has written a major novel, and at his very first attempt' TELEGRAPH, 5-STAR REVIEWWhen the waters of the Saraswati, a river of legend, start to rise in a corner of northern India, seven scattered descendants of a forbidden marriage are unexpectedly swept up in its current.Satnam, adrift from his life in London, is drawn into a contentious scheme to restore the river. Nathu, an archaeologist, ventures from Nairobi to a dig site that might reveal artefacts of a lost civilisation. And elsewhere in former lands of empire - in Singapore, Canada, Mauritius and Pakistan - the ripples are felt across generations. Gurnaik Johal's panoramic debut deftly animates the passions that bind us to our histories and each other.'A rich tapestry, occasionally bewildering, often beguiling' THE NEW YORK TIMES

AN OBSERVER BEST NEW NOVELIST 2025SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2025 A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE INDEPENDENT, TELEGRAPH, NERVE AND GUARDIAN'An ambitious, stylishly delivered novel ... Reminiscent of Salman Rushdie' OBSERVER'Johal has written a major novel, and at his very first attempt' TELEGRAPH, 5-STAR REVIEW'Saraswati is a major achievement, and Johal a huge talent. One of the biggest novels of the year' Martin MacInnes, Booker-longlisted author of In AscensionCenturies ago, the myths say, the holy river Saraswati flowed through what is now Northern India. But when Satnam arrives in his ancestral village for his grandmother's funeral, he is astonished to find water in the long-dry well behind her house. The discovery sets in motion a contentious scheme to unearth the lost river and build a gleaming new city on its banks, and Satnam - adrift from his job, girlfriend and flat back in London - soon finds himself swept up in this ferment of Hindu nationalist pride.As the river alters Satnam's course, so it reveals buried ties to six distant relatives scattered across the globe - from an ambitious writer with her eye on legacy to a Kenyan archaeologist to a Bollywood stunt double - who are brought together in a rapidly changing India. Brimming with love, lush, violence and loss, Gurnaik Johal's magisterial debut deftly animates the passions that bind us to our histories, our lands and each other.