The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota: The Novel Cure for getting others to do your dirty work

Ailment: Getting others to do your dirty work

Cure: The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

Getting our hands dirty is something many of us relish – gardening, painting, doing an annual spring clean… but there are limits. When it comes to the really foul jobs, such as disposing of carrion, breaking down waste, or cleaning up unmentionable spills, we prefer to hold our noses, avert our eyes – and pay someone else to do it. As with all shirkings of responsibility, though, we know deep down that we shouldn't just pass the buck. Read Sunjeev Sahota's compelling second novel and you will vow, from now on, to clean up your own mess.

Avtar, Randeep and Tochi have all come to the UK from India in search of a better life. Tochi has been severely traumatised by the loss of his parents and pregnant wife, and seeks both oblivion and a new start. Randeep has entered the country on a marriage visa, and though he would like to have a loving relationship with his previously unknown wife, she doesn't want one with him.

They all end up in Sheffield, where their struggles to find work see them tramping up and down the Ecclesall Road and inhabiting a world of doubt and cultural divide.

Abandoned by Randeep, Avtar's plight becomes desperate and he ends up, for minimal pay, clearing the sewers – not just of excrement, but of an enormous ball of fat like a "writhing, 10-foot maggot". His Sisyphysian task is made harder – and more repulsive – by the way the "fatberg" clings to the walls as stubbornly as chewing gum. Condoms float past him "like silver fish towards the light", reminding us of the unthinking masses above.

Next time you pour something nasty down your sink, or flush grease into the pipes, think about where it goes. Eventually, someone will have to confront it in the darkness, surrounded by rats – someone who, perhaps, had greater hopes for their life.

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