Saraswati

A dizzyingly transcontinental ecological epic ... Saraswati most certainly delivers, darting thrillerishly around the world to fold chewy themes of empire, populism and global warming into a cross-generational epic centred on seven strangers * Observer, ‘Best new novelists for 2025’ * A surging, roaring deluge of a novel, which ebbs and flows with a flood of wonderfully overlapping stories. I absolutely loved it -- Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13 Saraswati is an extraordinary novel: gripping, funny, epic, elegant, and full of preternatural wisdom. Johal's greatest strength is his ability to show the world as inexhaustibly fascinating, a vast and wondrous meshwork of interlocking stories. Saraswati is a major achievement, and Johal a huge talent. This should be one of the biggest novels of the year -- Martin MacInnes, Booker-longlisted author of In Ascension A bold, intriguing tapestry of near-future tales: part absurdist political satire, part folkloric meditation, part ecological parable, this novel pulses with a frenetic energy that brings together a cast of beguiling characters -- Aube Rey Lescure, Women's Prize-shortlisted author of River East, River West Immersive, erudite, intimate and epic, a weaving of lives and stories, old and new, into something vast and very special. Saraswati sounds a note of hope, and a warning for our future -- Preti Taneja, award-winning author of We That Are Young Capacious and brilliant. It has all the sweeping ambition of a great epic with the intimate genius of a master short story writer -- Anna Metcalfe, Granta Best of Young British Novelists author of Chrysalis Praise for Gurnaik Johal * : * Virtuosic * Guardian * Exceptional * Financial Times * Johal has catapulted himself into the front rank -- Rahul Raina