Wimmy Road Boyz, by Sufiyaan Salam.
Composed in English and flavored with Pakistani Urdu and Arabic slang, this debut novel by a director of music videos for Elton John follows three young men of South Asian descent on a single boisterous evening on Manchester’s “Curry Mile.”
A young Salam began reading James Joyce’s Ulysses on the same day he attended a Pakistani rapper’s show, inspiring him to treat the two modes with “the same kind of respect or care,” he told the BBC.
A “coming-of-age meets state-of-the-nation novel,” Wimmy Road Boyz “tears through Britain’s social fabric to examine toxic masculinity, community and youth culture,” The Guardian wrote. Buy Wimmy Road Boyz from your local bookstore.