Manish Chauhan is the author of the new novel Belgrave Road. He is also a lawyer, and he lives in London.
Q: What inspired you to write Belgrave Road, and how did you create your characters Mira and Tahliil?
A: There were two things, I think.
The first was that I met a young woman who had come to England following an arranged marriage. I didn’t know much about her, other than that she wasn’t particularly educated and that she didn’t have any family of her own in England.
We had a very brief conversation, but over the days that followed, I found myself thinking about her – or rather the idea of her. What would happen if she decided she didn’t like being married or living in Leicester? Would she be able to get divorced? Would she be able to fend for herself?
Perhaps she would she simply grin and bear it, the way so many others before her had? But what if she wasn’t that kind of woman? What might become of her life?
The second thing that happened around that time was that I found myself reading a lot about the migrant crossings that were taking place from Africa into Europe.
I became interested in exploring the reasons that compel people to flee their home countries. How might it be to end up in Leicester as a grown up? How might a person carry the experience of a migrant crossing with them through their lives?
As the son of immigrants, I found both stories equally compelling and, after some time, found that the narratives began to speak to each other. From here, the idea for the novel was born.
Mira’s journey to England was similar to the journey my father made after marrying my mother.
As for Tahliil’s character, this required research, but I wanted to write about somebody honest and hardworking who attempts to become the master of their own destiny, and about how their circumstances and the structures inside which they are forced to operate help or hinder their attempts.
Q: Did you need to do much research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: Most of my research was with respect to Tahliil’s story. That said, even though it was important to understand the life he may have had prior to coming to England, the majority of my research was in looking at the ever-changing asylum process within the UK and how this impacts the people who come to fall under it.
Tahliil is an honest person; he is not looking for a free ride. The more I looked into the various processes, the more it became apparent that what was supposed to be fair and transparent ends up achieving the opposite.
The delays in the process, sometimes over the course of many years, were very surprising to learn about. That and the lack of support which prevents asylum seekers from working or claiming government benefits, for example, compounded by the fact that many are made to feel as though they are lying and will soon be discovered.
This all adds to the trauma that many asylum seekers have already suffered.
When it came to researching Somali culture, I watched a lot of documentaries and read novels and poems by Somali writers or about Somalia, always mindful that the research, whilst important, should not intrude with the reading of the novel but sit quietly in its background.
One thing I noticed about the Somali people I saw in documentaries was the deep strength and resilience they possessed despite the things they had suffered. This was very much something I wanted to convey via the Somali characters in Belgrave Road.
Q: The writer Crystal Hana Kim said of the book, “In deft, lucid prose, Manish Chauhan asks us to consider the meaning of home, the might of love, and the injustices created by the borders of our contemporary world.” What do you think of that description?
A: It’s such a generous, lovely description and it makes me happy to read it as it’s very close to what I intended when writing the novel. The idea of what constitutes “home” and love that operates against society has featured in almost everything I have written, and I continue to find these subjects fascinating.
The borders that exist between people are almost all man-made, and I find it both sad and interesting to think about the ramifications of such things which invariably cause much conflict and division. Sometimes I wish we were all birds, for whom such borders mean nothing.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Not entirely. All I knew was that the ending had to be realistic and as hopeful as I could manage given the circumstances. Without giving too much away, I knew where the story would end but it wasn’t until I reached the end of the novel that the details became clear.
Usually before I begin writing, I have a sense of the characters and their general arcs but not much more than that. The ending, I feel, should be formed only at the end.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Another novel set in Leicester, but this time about a different sort of love – the sort that accumulates over the course of a very long marriage. My hope is to write three novels set in Leicester which follow people from different ages/classes/circumstances and which showcase the deeply interesting city I was born and raised in.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Just a note to say thank you! I hope that those who read Belgrave Road find something in it.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
.jpg)
