Knopf Canada to publish Booker-shortlisted novel The Year of the Runaways

TORONTO, Sept. 15, 2015 /CNW/ - Knopf Canada is proud to announce that it will publish Sunjeev Sahota's timely, acclaimed and, as of this morning, Booker-shortlisted novel about a year in the life of a group of illegal migrant workers from India – three young men from different castes; and one young woman, a "visa wife" – who are living and working together in the north of England.

The Year of the Runaways was published by Picador in the UK in the spring, and has received glowing reviews. The Guardian UK wrote, "You stay up late to learn what happens next. This is a novel that takes on the largest questions and still shines in the smallest details … brilliant and beautiful"; and the London Daily Mail raved, "Should be compulsory reading. A magnificent achievement." Salman Rushdie has also praised the book, saying, "All you can do is surrender happily to its power."

Lynn Henry, publishing director at Knopf Canada, says, "The Year of the Runaways is a wonder: raw and unexpected; shocking and tender; poignant and overwhelming. When Louise Dennys and I first read the manuscript a year ago, we had the same reaction: we were gripped … and convinced we had to publish it. It is strikingly humane. From the first sentence it absorbs us, taking us inside today's illegal immigrant experience that – as we know from the headlines dominating the news – is ever more common to thousands upon thousands of people but that we rarely see depicted so completely and compassionately."

Knopf Canada will publish the novel in mid-October of this year.

Sunjeev Sahota was born in 1981 in Derbyshire and lives in Sheffield. His first novel, Ours Are the Streets, was published in 2011, and he was named to Granta's prestigious list of "Best Young British Novelists" in 2013. The Year of the Runaways is his second novel.

SOURCE Knopf Canada

Maximillian Arambulo, Publicity Manager, 416.957.1593, [email protected]