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HT reviewer Simar Bhasin picks her favourite read of 2022
As a reader and reviewer, this year was characterized by the different short story collections by a range of writers from across the globe
As a reader and reviewer, this year was characterized by the different short story collections by a range of writers from across the globe. From Carlo Pizzati’s humorous A History Of Objects to George Saunders’ thought provoking Liberation Day and Alan Moore’s dizzying Illuminations, each collection of short prose narratives was a testament to the ways in which the form has evolved.
However, the one work that stood out was Gurnaik Johal’s We Move. Johal’s literary work comprises a total of 17 somewhat interlinked short narratives, with three directly connected stories. The collection, which comes across as a literary maze, presents the reader with snapshots of the Punjabi diaspora in west London’s Southall. The geographical markers of the landscape are intertwined with the personal history of Johal’s characters in stories that vary both in the form of their compositions as well as the length, with some narratives only three or four pages long. Whether it is the way in which he shows the mobility that is intrinsic to the migrant condition, a mobility that is also represented in the title itself, or the many forms of desire that characterize the life of an immigrant in the western world, Johal’s stories resonate with the reader.
The ones that especially stood out were Leave to Remain, The Red River and the three directly linked narratives beginning with the word Chatpata in their titles along with the titular story, We Move. Johal’s pushing of the structural boundaries of the English language to incorporate realities that lie beyond it and his use of the linguistic domains of desire and intimacy as modes of literary composition, make this book an important addition to South Asian migrant fiction.
Simar Bhasin is an independent journalist.
