Partly inspired by his family’s history, Sunjeev Sahota’s novel, China Room, begins in 1929 Punjab, when three young women are married to three brothers in a single ceremony. As the women work hard on the family farm, from beneath their veils they try to piece together which brother is their husband.
Spiraled among this story are two other timelines, one in 1999, when the great-grandson of one of the brides returns to the family farm to fight an addiction, and 2019, when that same great-grandson returns to his parents home to write the story.
I recently spoke with Sunjeev Sahota from his home in London about this novel based on his fascinating family legend.
-
China Room by Sunjeev Sahota was published by Viking.
Thanks for joining us for Marginalia. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a review.
Marginalia was produced at KMUW Wichita.
- Mark Statzer and Torin Andersen - engineers
- Lu Anne Stephens - editor
- Haley Crowson - producer
- Beth Golay - host
Follow Beth Golay on Twitter @BethGolay.
