The Boy with the Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies - Softcover

Sanghera, Sathnam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141028599 ISBN 13: 9780141028590

Publisher: Penguin, 2009

Synopsis

NOW A BBC DRAMA

The Boy with the Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton is a hilarious and heart-rending reinvention of the modern British memoir.

"It's 1979, I'm three years old, and like all breakfast times during my youth it begins with Mum combing my hair, a ritual for which I have to sit down on the second-hand, floral-patterned settee, and lean forward, like I'm presenting myself for execution."

For Sathnam Sanghera, growing up in Wolverhampton in the eighties was a confusing business. On the one hand, these were the heady days of George Michael mix-tapes, Dallas on TV and, if he was lucky, the occasional Bounty Bar. On the other, there was his wardrobe of tartan smocks, his 30p-an-hour job at the local sewing factory and the ongoing challenge of how to tie the perfect top-knot.
And then there was his family, whose strange and often difficult behaviour he took for granted until, at the age of twenty-four, Sathnam made a discovery that changed everything he ever thought he knew about them. Equipped with breathtaking courage and a glorious sense of humour, he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past - from his father's harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office - trying to make sense of a life lived among secrets.

About this title

Review

I absolutely loved it. Heartbreaking and wonderful. He writes beautifully (Maggie O'Farrell)

Could not be more enjoyable, engaging or moving (Observer)

About real secrets, in a real quest for understanding. It's tragic, funny and disturbing. It will challenge you, and may even change you (Carole Angier Independent)

Hilarious, engaging, tragicomic (Meg Rosoff Guardian)

'Gripping and entertaining, horrifying and tender ... Exposes all those things we take for granted as we grow up (Hardeep Singh Kohli The Times)

Fans of Nick Hornby and Jonathan Coe will love this book (Psychologies)

Gripping, tender ... recalls A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Time Out)

Told with enormous compassion and dry wit. The climax had me on the edge of my seat (Jonathan Coe)

Funny, heartfelt (Marie Claire)

Hugely enjoyable (New Statesman)

From the Back Cover

"I heartily recommend this wonderful book." Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

It's 1979, I'm three years old, and like all breakfast times during my youth it begins with Mum combing my hair, a ritual for which I have to sit down on the second-hand, floral-patterned settee, and lean forward, like I'm presenting myself for execution.

For Sathnam Sanghera, growing up in Wolverhampton in the eighties was a confusing business. On the one hand, these were the heady days of George Michael mix-tapes, Dallas on TV and, if he was lucky, the occasional Bounty Bar. On the other, there was his wardrobe of tartan smocks, his 30p-an-hour job at the local sewing factory and the ongoing challenge of how to tie the perfect top-knot.

And then there was his family, whose strange and often difficult behaviour he took for granted until, at the age of twenty-four, Sathnam made a discovery that changed everything he ever thought he knew about them. Equipped with breathtaking courage and a glorious sense of humour, he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past - from his father's harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office - trying to make sense of a life lived among secrets.
'Could not be more enjoyable, engaging or moving' Observer

'Hilarious, engaging, tragicomic' Meg Rosoff, Guardian

Published in hardcover as If You Don't Know Me by Now

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0141028599
• ISBN 13: 9780141028590
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336