Londonstani, Gautam Malkani’s electrifying debut, exposes a city where young Asians (desis) struggle with white boys (goras) to assert their own brands of Britishness in the shadow of the divergent cultures of their parents’ generation.

Set close to the Heathrow airport feed roads of Hounslow, Malkani shows us the lives of four young gangsters: Hardjit, the ring leader—a violent Sikh, determined his caste stay pure; Ravi, besotted with Bollywood actresses and utterly tactless, a sheep following the herd; Amit, whose brother Arun is struggling to secure the blessing of their devout Hindu mother for his lower-caste bride-to-be; and Jas, who tells us of his journey with these three, desperate to win their approval—desperate too for Samira, a Muslim girl, which in this story can have only bad consequences. Together these four cruise the streets in Amit’s souped-up Beemer, making a little money changing the electronic fingerprints on stolen mobile phones, a scam that leads them into dangerous terrain.

Funny, crude, disturbing, written in the vibrant language of its protagonists—a mix of slang, texting, Panjabi and bastardized gangsta rap—Londonstani is about many things: tribalism, aggressive masculinity, integration, cross- cultural chirpsing techniques, the urban scene seeping into the mainstream, bling-bling economics and “complicated family-related shit.” It is one of the most surprising novels of recent years.

First we was rudeboys, then we be Indian niggas, then rajamuffins, then raggastanis, brit-asians, fuckin Indobrits. These days most a us try an use our own word for homeboys an so we just call ourselves desis but I still remember when we were happy with the word rudeboy. Anyway, whatever the fuck we are, Ravi an the others are better at being it than I am. I swear I watched as much MTV Base an downloaded as many DMX, Rishi Rich an Juggy D tracks as they have, but I still can’t attain the right level a rudeboy finesse. If I could, I wouldn’t be using poncy words like attain an finesse, innit.

"Intelligent, keenly observed and, though never didactic, concerned in a moral sense with its characters' lives.... Londonstani deserves a wide audience because it is one of those rare books that repays its reader with an engaging literary experience and thoughts about things that matter to us all."