You People

Author: Nikita Lalwani

Genre: Literary Fiction, Thriller

Publisher: Penguin

Year: April 2020

Format: Ebook / Hardcover

Blurb: 'Lalwani is a writer who understands people, and it shines through in her descriptions. This is a moving, authentic, humane novel which raises fundamental questions about what it means to be kind in an unkind world, and it will stay with me for a long time' - Guardian

The Pizzeria Vesuvio looks like any other Italian restaurant in London - with a few small differences. The chefs who make the pizza fiorentinas are Sri Lankan, and half the kitchen staff are illegal immigrants.

At the centre is Tuli, the restaurant's charismatic proprietor and resident Robin Hood, who promises to help anyone in need. Welsh nineteen-year-old Nia, haunted by her troubled past, is running from her family. Shan, having fled the Sri Lankan civil war, is desperate to find his.

But when Tuli's guidance leads them all into dangerous territory, and the extent of his mysterious operation unravels, each is faced with an impossible moral choice.

In a world where the law is against you, how far would you be willing to lie for a chance to live?

'Intelligent and heart-piercing - an exceptional novel about the Britain we live in, even if we choose not to see it' Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire

'Enthralling as a thriller, yet also a beautiful human drama, and a serious enquiry into the possibility of goodness' Tessa Hadley

'Beautiful and brilliant. The exquisite writing is vivid, poetic and perceptive; the characters alive and compelling. Everything I want from a novel. I loved it' Stephen Merchant

'A startlingly original, continuously astute, and deeply compassionate novel. You People alerts us, in these dark times, to the possibility of human nobility' Pankaj Mishra

---