'This novel is genius . . . strange and superb . . . radiant and exhilarating' THE TELEGRAPH
'A magnificent attempt to help us understand the mixture of optimism, self-defense, hope and delusion[needed] to make the monumental choice of whether or not to leave home' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
' A sobering reminder' WASHINGTON POST
'Leaping, chattering, dancing atop this conundrum [of global migration] comes the hero of Celina Baljeet Basra's debut novel, Happy Singh Soni, his head bursting with ideas, his heart set on gargantuan dreams' NEW YORK TIMES
A starry-eyed young cinephile leaves his rural village in India with big dreams, only to find himself trapped in menial jobs and forced to work off a debt he may never repay.
In a small farming village in Punjab, India, a boy crouches over his brother's phone in a rapeseed field watching clips of Godard's
Bande à part on YouTube.
His name is Happy Singh Soni and when he's not sleeping among the cabbages and eating sugary rotis, Happy dreams of becoming an actor, one who plays the melancholy roles; the sad, pretty boys, rare in Indian cinema. He plans a clandestine journey to Europe, where he'll finally land a breakout role.
After a nightmarish passage to Italy, Happy still manages to find relief in food and fantasy, even as he is forced into ever-worsening work conditions on a radish farm by the syndicate involved in smuggling him to Europe to pay off the supposed debt they claim he has accrued. While disillusionment amongst the farm workers rise, Happy will find the love - and tragedy - that his favourite films always promised.
At turns funny and heart-breaking, sunny and tragic,
Happy is a formally ambitious novel about the psychic fissures produced by the splintering of nations, and the lovely, generative, artful coping mechanisms created by generations of diasporic people. With this ingenious, daringly cinematic debut, Celina Baljeet Basra argues for the things that are basic to human survival: food, water, shelter, but also pleasure, romance, art, and the right to a vivid inner life.
More praise for HAPPY:'A MIRACULOUS NOVEL'
MEGHA MAJUMDAR 'PLAYFUL AND PROFOUND . . . USING WRY HUMOUR TO DELIVER A DEAD SERIOUS MESSAGE'
MELISSA FU'A BONKERS STORY THAT READS LIKE A FINE TEN-COURSE MEAL'
GARY SHTEYNGART'A FANTASTIC LITTLE GEM OF A BOOK'
CHIKODILI EMELUMADUCELINA BALJEET BASRA is a writer and cultural worker based in Berlin. She is a founder of the Department of Love, a curatorial collective. Happy is her first novel.
