| July 8, 2009 | ||
| 6:30 pm | to | 10:00 pm |
Sathnam Sanghera talks about his award-winning book at the Mango Leaf Restaurant, 249 Green Street, London E7
It’s 1979, I’m three years old, and like all breakfast times during my youth it begins with Mum combing my hair, a ritual for which I have to sit down on the second-hand, floral-patterned settee, and lean forward, like I’m presenting myself for execution.
For Sathnam Sanghera, growing up in Wolverhampton in the eighties was a confusing business. On the one hand, these were the heady days of George Michael mix-tapes, Dallas on TV and, if he was lucky, the occasional Bounty Bar. On the other, there was his wardrobe of tartan smocks, his 30p-an-hour job at the local sewing factory and the ongoing challenge of how to tie the perfect top-knot.
And then there was his family, whose strange and often difficult behaviour he took for granted until, at the age of twenty-four, Sathnam made a discovery that changed everything he ever thought he knew about them. Equipped with breathtaking courage and a glorious sense of humour, he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past — from his father’s harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office — trying to make sense of a life lived among secrets.
“Sensitive… tenacious… funny and revealing… warm, witty, neurotic, self-deprecating, wordplay-loving… In bearing witness to his family’s experience, Sanghera has brought to us rare news of working-class life, of living with mental illness and of overwhelming filial love. A family photo near the end of the book shows the author in his graduation gown and cap surrounded by his parents and siblings. How far he’s come, you think, against such odds, and you want to punch the air and cry at the same time.” — Lynsey Hanley, The Sunday Times.
“This is not just another misery-memoir, or provincial coming-of-age story. It is a meditation on mental illness and cultural difference, told with enormous compassion and the most unexpected dry wit. The climax had me on the edge of my seat. What a painful and joyous voyage of discovery Sathnam Sanghera has been on in the last few years, and how perfectly he recreates it for us!” — Jonathan Coe.
• The Boy with the Topknot is published in paperback by Penguin at £9.99.
• Tickets £15 from Newham Bookshop, including a two-course buffet meal and talk by Sathnam Sanghera.
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