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If You Don't Know Me by Now
A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton
Viking Adult
Hardback : 06 Mar 2008
£16.99
Synopsis
'Mum is never more anxious than at a celebration, hovering around us with red chillies to frighten away evil spirits. I hate that I’ve inherited this attitude: sometimes I can feel the end of good things before I’ve even had a chance to enjoy them. But finally I understand why my mother was so fond of the phrase: that’s how life was for her. For years, for every one shot of happy, there would be two shots of sad.'
When Sathnam Sanghera was twenty-four years old he made a discovery about his family that would both darken, and illuminate his life. It would set him on a journey into his family’s past: from his father’s harsh life in rural Punjab, to the terrifying early years of his parents’ marriage in England; from his mother’s extraordinary resilience as she brought up her young family in a foreign land, without any knowledge of its language, to the author’s happy memories of his own childhood – his obsessions with George Michael and a desire to have the perfect top knot. And, most affectingly of all, this discovery would finally force Sanghera’s own secret life into the glaring light: his longing for romantic love which he had, for fear of family rejection, kept utterly hidden from his beloved mother.
From Hindu hairdressers to the Wolverhampton tourist office, from terrifying violence to boundless family loyalty, If You Don’t Know Me by Now is a heart-rending account of one family’s unimaginable suffering and also its great capacity for love. In a voice that is by turns tender and wonderfully funny, Sathnam Sanghera tells a story of the seemingly unbridgeable, and often harrowing, gulf between classes, cultures and generations and also provides a moving testament to the surprising power of unconditional love.
Interview
A quickfire interview with author Sathnam Sanghera
Who or what always puts a smile on your face?
My memory of attempting to rebrand myself "Blade" at university
What are you reading at the moment?
Clever Girl by Brian Thompson
Which author do you most admire?
Jonathan Coe
What's your earliest memory?
Pretending I could speak English - to my three elder siblings as they headed off to school one morning
What is your greatest fear?
Disappointing my family
How would you like to be remembered?
Perpetually!
Have you ever done something you've really regretted?
Yes, but I try not to dwell on it.
How do you spoil yourself?
Long drives in nice cars to posh hotels
What's your favourite book?
Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie
Who (or what) do you turn to in a crisis?
My family and a handful of good friends - they know who they are
What makes you angry?
Bullying
Which foreign country would you most like to visit?
Japan
How do you relax?
To music
What are you proudest of?
That I am my parents' son
Where do you write?
Everywhere - at home in London and Wolverhampton, in London libraries, in coffee shops and on trains
Which is your favourite city and why?
London - I feel I can be whoever I want to be here
One wish; what would it be?
To cure my father and my sister of their schizophrenia
Product details
Format : Hardback
ISBN: 9780670916702
Size : 0 x 0mm
Pages : 336
Published : 06 Mar 2008
Publisher : Viking Adult
If You Don't Know Me by Now
A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton
£16.99
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