A talented new writer whose portrayal of the serious business of assimilation and young masculinity is disturbing and hilarious Hailed as one of the most surprising British novels in recent years, Gautam Malkani's electrifying debut reveals young South Asians struggling to distinguish themselves from their parents' generation in the vast urban sprawl that is contemporary London. Chronicling the lives of a gang of four young middle-class men-Hardjit, the violent enforcer; Ravi, the follower; Amit, who's struggling to come to terms with his mother's hypocrisy; and Jas, desperate to win the approval of the others despite lusting after Samira, a Muslim girl-Londonstani, funny, disturbing, and written in the exuberant language of its protagonists, is about tribalism, aggressive masculinity, integration, alienation, bling-bling economics, and "complicated family-related shit."

A talented new writer whose portrayal of the serious business of assimilation and young masculinity is disturbing and hilarious Hailed as one of the most surprising British novels in recent years, Gautam Malkani's electrifying debut reveals young South Asians struggling to distinguish themselves from their parents' generation in the vast urban sprawl that is contemporary London. Chronicling the lives of a gang of four young middle-class men-Hardjit, the violent enforcer; Ravi, the follower; Amit, who's struggling to come to terms with his mother's hypocrisy; and Jas, desperate to win the approval of the others despite lusting after Samira, a Muslim girl-Londonstani, funny, disturbing, and written in the exuberant language of its protagonists, is about tribalism, aggressive masculinity, integration, alienation, bling-bling economics, and "complicated family-related shit."

This volume investigates how fictional literary varieties and characterising discourse in a literary text can be translated and reproduced in the target language and culture. For this purpose, selected examples from Gautam Malkani’s debut novel Londonstani (2006) and its Italian translation by Massimo Bocchiola (2007) are analysed and discussed, in terms of the solutions they offer for the study of linguistic variation as a translation issue, and in terms of the constraints involved in the translation of linguistic varieties. The contrastive analysis conducted on the novel and its Italian translation will serve to provide new insights into the several issues the translation of vernacular literature can raise. How can a translator linguistically recreate the hybrid identity of the characters as Londonstanis, and their performing of masculinity through ethnicity (by resorting to non-standard forms and linguistic repertoires other than the English language) in a new context (the Italian one), which only recently is experiencing the challenges of superdiversity? These are some of the questions this book answers. It will be of primary interest to a wide range of scholars in the fields of translation studies, sociolinguistics, and cross-cultural communication.

'Thought-provoking' Spectator 'Taut and timely . . . A brilliant exploration of social media' Nikesh Shukla 'Original and important . . . Essential reading' Sathnam Sanghera Meet Dillon: a high-functioning fuck-up and carer for his dying mum. Trapped in an absurd cycle of pre-bereavement bereavement, he has been hiding his pain and some horrible truths, not least from his girlfriend, Ramona. His distortions have been growing dangerously more hardcore and hardwired, both online and off, thanks to the self-reinforcing effects of social media and creepy digital surveillance. And when a pair of snooping goons turn up, threatening to expose him, he is forced to confront a gut-wrenching secret that he would rather leave well alone. This audacious novel asks what happens when our minds are twisted beyond recognition by our digital data and search histories, and when our darkest truths are forced into the light by the uncanny predictive capabilities of our smartphones. What lengths would you go to in order to hide from yourself?

Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+ provides an encompassing survey of artistic responses to the changes in the British cultural climate in the early years of the 21st century. It traces topical reactions to new forms of racism and religious fundamentalism, to legal as well as 'illegal' immigration, and to the threat of global terror; yet it also highlights new forms of intercultural communication and convivial exchange. Framed by contributions from novelists Patrick Neate and Rajeev Balasubramanyam, Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+ showcases how artistic representations in literature, film, music and the visual arts reflect and respond to social and political discourses, and how they contribute to our understanding of the current (trans)cultural situation in Britain. The contributions in this volume cover a wide range of writers such as Graham Swift, Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith, Jackie Kay, Nadeem Aslam, Gautam Malkani, Nirpal Dhaliwal and Monica Ali; films ranging from Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice to Michael Winterbottom's In This World and Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men; paintings and photography by innovative black and Asian British Artists; and dubstep music.

Has British literature finally surpassed Postmodernism and are we thus currently witnessing the emergence of a new era? Choosing specific forms of engagement with difference as a starting point, the present study traces recent developments in the field of the novel and illustrates in how far these new ways of dealing with difference may be characterised as "non-postmodern". Moreover, the analysis aims to demonstrate the renewed importance of modern(ist) strategies and their employment in contemporary British fiction. Case studies of six novels complement and illuminate these findings.

Drawing together the insights of postcolonial scholarship and cultural studies, Popular Postcolonialisms questions the place of ‘the popular’ in the postcolonial paradigm. Multidisciplinary in focus, this collection explores the extent to which popular forms are infused with colonial logics, and whether they can be employed by those advocating for change. It considers a range of fiction, film, and non-hegemonic cultural forms, engaging with topics such as environmental change, language activism, and cultural imperialism alongside analysis of figures like Tarzan and Frankenstein. Building on the work of cultural theorists, it asks whether the popular is actually where elite conceptions of the world may best be challenged. It also addresses middlebrow cultural production, which has tended to be seen as antithetical to radical traditions, asking whether this might, in fact, form an unlikely realm from which to question, critique, or challenge colonial tropes. Examining the ways in which the imprint of colonial history is in evidence (interrogated, mythologized or sublimated) within popular cultural production, this book raises a series of speculative questions exploring the interrelation of the popular and the postcolonial.