Why a Booktrail?
2000s and in the past: Think you know the real story behind immigration?
The Year of the Runaways
What you need to know before your trail
Everyone has an opinion on immigration. Everyone thinks they understand or emphasize with the plight of those who flee from their homeland in search of a better life.
This is the story of 13 young men all brought together in one house in Sheffield, all of them from India, each of them for reasons of their own. This is their story over the course of one year as they try to cope and adapt to their new surroundings and their new reality.
This is also a story about modern day India and modern day Britain as the men are caught between two cultures and finding that for the moment, they belong to neither. But the real story is how and why these men came in the first place and what there chances of a new life really are.
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This book, published in 2016, at the very time when Europe is experiencing one of the largest waves of migration recorded. the subject is extremely topical and this is an insight into the reality of moving from everything you have ever known to the extreme unknown.
The men are from a range of backgrounds – Tarlochan is a former rickshaw driver from Bihar but doesn’t really reveal a lot about himself. Avtar and Randeep seem to share a secret between them and Randeep also has a wife he keeps secret from the authorities. There are others working illegally but life in Sheffield is not what any of them expects. They seem to have moved from the caste system to the class system -both equally restrictive in their own way.
So where will they get the best chances in life? It’s a dog eat dog world all over and you feel the depth of despair when witnessing the poverty and destruction in India, as well as the empty shells they become once in Sheffield. These people have worries, struggles and concerns most of us will be totally unaware of.
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