In this episode, I chat to the lovely Jyoti Patel, author of the Merky Books Young Writer's Prize for 2021. Her debut novel is a stunning, moving coming-of-age story of a British-Gujarati family living in North London. 

The Things That We Lost s told from the perspectives of 18-year-old Nik and his British Indian mother Avani, flitting between the past and present as Nik searches for answers surrounding the circumstances of his father’s death. An extract of the novel was selected as the winning submission out of over 2000 entries for the 2021 #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize.

Earlier this month, Jyoti was selected as one of The Observer's 10 Best New Novelists for 2023. She is also a graduate of the Creative Writing Prose Fiction MA from the University of East Anglia and she joins us today from London. 

In this episode, we talk about family dynamics, secrets, mental health, identity, language and being asked where we're from.

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