Belgrave Road: immigrant life and fragile love in Leicester

Manish Chauhan's debut novel Belgrave Road is a coming-of-age love story set in Leicester that sketches the lived realities of immigrants in Britain and considers love as "home, hope and destiny." Newly arrived in England after an arranged marriage to British-Indian Rajiv, Mira finds herself out of place as she discovers Rajiv holds secrets and loves someone else.

On the eponymous Belgrave Road, entire days go by "without sight of an English person", and Mira fills her time with English classes, household chores and companionship with her mother-in-law while enduring deep loneliness. Tahliil is an asylum seeker from Somalia who, with his sister Sumayya, joins their mother in Leicester.

He works as an at-home carer and at a cash-and-carry for cash-in-hand while waiting for the Home Office to grant his request for asylum. He meets Mira when she begins working as a cook at the neighbouring sweet shop, and their fragile, arguably forbidden romance unfolds amid uncertainty about their individual and shared futures: "how unprepared he was, how unprepared they both were, for their own happiness." Chauhan explores generational contrasts and upends the stereotype of the wicked mother-in-law by depicting a close bond between Mira and her saasu, where small acts of care become radical gestures of protection.

Key Topics

Culture, Belgrave Road, Manish Chauhan, Leicester, Mira, Tahliil