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.

‘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

Publisher Review

An acute debut. What is most chilling, and most successful, is that it all seems so familiar, so close and so easy. * Sunday Times * The book's 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. * Observer * Excruciatingly well-written. * Guardian * Imtiaz's journey to Pakistan, and his sense of belonging, gives the novel much of its eloquence. Great literary promise. * Independent * 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, `Book of the Month' * What Sahota creates is not an exploration of the psyche of a suicide bomber, but an exploration of a man. * Yorkshire Post * Genuine, poignant . . . A moral work of real intelligence and power. -- John Burnside * The Times *