Ours are the Streets

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Description

From Yorkshire to Afghanistan, Ours are the Streets is a poignant and powerful story of political radicalization by Sunjeev Sahota, author of Man Booker Prize shortlisted The Year of the Runaways. When Imtiaz Raina leaves England for the first time, to bury his father on his family's land near Lahore, he exchanges his uncertain life in Sheffield for a road that leads to the mountains of Kashmir and Afghanistan. Once back in Yorkshire, he writes through the night to his young wife Becka and baby daughter Noor, and tries to explain, in a story full of affection and yearning, what has happened to him - and why he has a devastating new sense of home. Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature. 'What Sahota creates is not an exploration of the psyche of a suicide bomber, but an exploration of a man.' - Yorkshire Post 'What is most chilling, and most successful, is that it all seems so familiar, so close and so easy.' - Sunday Times

Reviews

Genuine, poignant . . . A moral work of real intelligence and power -- John Burnside * The Times *
What Sahota creates is not an exploration of the psyche of a suicide bomber, but an exploration of a man * The Yorkshire Post *
Startling. This book successfully humanizes one of the great demons of contemporary society, and for that, Sunjeev Sahota should be given a high five off the Queen or something * Dazed and Confused *
Excruciatingly well-written * The Guardian *
Imtiazs journey to Pakistan, and his sense of belonging, gives the novel much of its eloquence. Great literary promise * The Independent *
The books great force lies in its voice: that of a young man straining to express instincts, fears and emotional conflicts, lending his writing a distinctive vibrancy * The Observer *
An acute debut. What is most chilling, and most successful, is that it all seems so familiar, so close and so easy * The Sunday Times *

Author Bio

Sunjeev Sahota is the author of Ours are the Streets, The Year of the Runaways and China Room. The Year of the Runaways was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize and the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and won the Encore Prize, the South Bank Sky Arts Award, and the European Union Prize for Literature. China Room was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Sahota was chosen as one of the Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2013 and is a fellow of the RSL. He lives in Sheffield and teaches at Durham University. The Spoiled Heart is his fourth novel.