Black Bread White Beer

OBSERVER BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2012

LONGLISTED FOR THE DSC PRIZE FOR SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE

Amal is driving his wife Claud from London to her parents' country house. In the wake of Claud's miscarriage, it is a journey that will push their relationship – once almost perfect – towards possible collapse.

In this, his latest novel, Govinden casts a critical eye on a society in which, in spite of never-ending advances in social media communications, the young still find it difficult to communicate.

A devastatingly passionate and real portrait of a marriage, ‘Black Bread White Beer' keenly captures the abandon, selfishness, hazards and pleasures that come with giving your life to another.

Reviews

‘Niven Govinden brilliantly evokes the bleak comedy and deranged exhilaration of modern life. This is the sound of the suburbs.'- Jake Arnott, author of ‘The Long Firm'

‘I'm full of admiration for this novel and the way it captures a couple as a crisis detonates in their marriage and exposes all sorts of emotional and cultural fault lines in the process.' Alex Clark

‘A novel of genuine power and resonance. It is the kind of book readers long for but so rarely find.' Stuart Evers

‘In form and scope, "Black Bread White Beer" recalls Ian McEwan's novella "On Chesil Beach".' – Tehelka (India)

About the author

Niven Govinden is the author of two previous novels, Graffiti My Soul and We are the New Romantics. He lives in London.