Londonstani

"Londonstani" is the name of Gautam Malkani's debut novel, first published in the United Kingdom in 2006. The name is derived from the setting of the novel, London, and the fact that the subject matter is the lives of second and third generation South Asian immigrants.

Plot summary

The novel is narrated by Jas, a youth who, until recently, was a timid but high-achieving student, but has lately become a member of a gang of "desis" or "rudeboys". Hardjit is the leader of the gang, a wealthy, self-confident, but violent young Sikh; the other two members of the gang are Ravi and Amit. The boys are actually all middle-class "mummy's boys", but they play at being tough thugs. They also run an illegitimate cellphone reprogamming operation.

The novel starts off with Hardjit assaulting a white student whom Hardjit thinks called him a "Paki". After the beating, the boys visit Davinder, another desi, who provides them with a number of phones to reprogram. Once the group has returns to Hardjit's house, Ravi breaks a phone while he's playing around with it. Annoyed and angered, Hardjit demands Ravi replace the phone.

The novel then takes to a fight between Hardjit and a Pakistani Muslim, Tariq, whom Hardjit accuses of dating a Sikh girl. During the fight the police arrive and question the group. Out of nowhere the gang's former teacher, Mr. Ashwood, arrives at the scene and convinces the police that they were only bhangra dancing. While Mr. Ashwood is talking to the police Ravi searches Mr. Ashwood's coat and steals his phone to replace the one he broke. When Mr. Ashwood returns and finds his phone missing he suspects the group have taken it. When they finally admit to stealing the phone and why they did, Mr Askwood then blackmails the group into speaking to a former model student and Cambridge graduate called Sanjay, threatening to call the police if they refuse.

When the group heads over to Sanjay's they expect him to be an effeminate "coconut" (a racial slur similar which indicates someone with brown skin who acts like he is white), but their expectations are not true. Sanjay, a wealthy businessman, offers them a deal that they would continue getting cellphones, but would give the phones to him without reprogramming them and in return Sanjay would pay them well. The group then reluctantly agrees and becomes wealthy quickly.

Sanjay also gives Jas advice and help to win over the girl of his dreams, Samira Ahmed, a young Pakistani Muslim girl. Eventually he does begin to go out with her, but must do so in secrecy, out of fear that Jas's friends or Samira's brothers would try to kill Jas due to their religious hostilities. As the novel progresses Jas eventually befriends Amit's brother Arun and gives him advice on how to deal with his mother, who is trying to control Arun's wedding.

Later on, Arun and his mother have a huge falling out for which Jas is blamed. Since Amit believes Jas is responsible for his family problems he avoids Jas. Afterwards Hardjit and Ravi find out about Jas's secret relationship with Samira and estrange themselves from Jas.

Arun then commits suicide with an aspirin overdose, which estranges Jas from the gang even further. After the funeral Jas and Samira get into a fight and break up. When Jas goes to Sanjay's for refuge, Sanjay tells Jas that he owes him two hundred phones or else Sanjay will send photoshop pictures of Jas and Samira to everyone in the community. Jas, who cannot use Hardjit's contacts, is forced to steal them from his father's phone store. While Jas is robbing his father's store, he is attacked by three hooded men and gets knocked out. When Jas becomes conscious he desperately tries to remove the blood from the carpet by burning it. The store is then engulfed in flames and Jas becomes unconscious again. As the novel comes to a close, Jas wakes up in a hospital finding his parents at his bedside yelling at him for what he's done.

It is at this point the novel takes a plot twist that could only ever happen in a book, as opposed to in a film. The reader discovers that Jas is in fact a young white male, named Jason, who has just implanted himself in the Indian subculture in London. His parents confront him with this fact during their argument in the hospital.

Literary Style

The novel is written in a very informal, conversational style. The narrator uses a mix of "txt" language, Indian and American slang.

ales

According to an analysis of UK book sales in "Private Eye" issue 1181 (30th March 2007), the book has sold 8,020 copies. As the author received an unusually large advance payment of £400,000, another 330,578 copies would have to be sold for the publisher, HarperCollins, to make back the advance. This placed the book at the number 1 position on the magazine's "Worstseller List". [Private Eye, issue 1181, 30th March 2007, p. 27.]

However, according to other sources, the advance paid to Malkani was lower and was part of a two-book deal, thereby implying the figure quoted in "Private Eye" was more than double the actual advance paid for "Londonstani" itself. According to "Time" magazine, the advance was: "$675,000 (£343,000) as part of a two-book deal". [Time Magazine, European edition, 15th May 2006, pp. 46-47.] The London "Evening Standard" reported an "advance of £380,000 for a two-book deal", [Evening Standard, 25th April 2006.] , and the "Daily Telegraph" cited an advance of "£380,000 as part of a two-book deal". [Daily Telegraph, Seven Arts and Listings Supplement, 26th February 2006, p. 55.]

Footnotes