In this episode of Lit with Charles, Charles welcomes British writer Manish Chauhan to celebrate the lead-up to his debut novel Belgrave Road (out with Faber in January). Set in Leicester, the book traces the intersecting lives of Mira, newly arrived from India in an arranged marriage that offers little refuge, and Talia, a Somali refugee navigating the UK asylum system. Manish speaks candidly about the long road to publication - writing since his teens, balancing a demanding career as a finance lawyer, and building momentum through short fiction - and about the real-life encounters and observations that sparked his story. At the heart of the conversation is what he hopes fiction can do right now: complicate the rhetoric around immigration by showing that every person contains “a whole number of stories,” not just the ones that dominate headlines.

As always, the episode is also a masterclass in reading as a writer. Manish shares four books that shaped his craft and sensibility: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Runaway by Alice Munro, Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, and Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri.

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