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Sunjeev Sahota recommends Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man by U.R. Ananthamurthy
A British Punjabi writer whose second book, The Year of the Runaways, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and who is included in Granta’s most recent list of the 20 best young writers today, Sunjeev Sahota hadn’t read a novel until he was 18 years old, when he bought Midnight’s Children at the airport on his way to visit relatives in India. He says, “It was like I was making up for lost time — not that I had to catch up, but it was as though I couldn’t quite believe this world of storytelling I had found and I wanted to get as much of it down me as I possibly could.” Sahota has recommended Samskara, recently included in the New York Times Classics. He says it is “one of my favourite novels in translation,” and this tale of the transformation of a man living in a community that refuses to change with the times is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of modern world literature. ©Alexi 2017
Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, January 14th, 2018
