Manish Chauhan, born in Leicester, is a writer who works as a finance lawyer in East London. His short story, “Pieces,” was shortlisted for the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award, and early excerpts of his debut novel, Belgrave Road, were longlisted for the Curtis Brown First Novel Award and shortlisted for the Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize.
In Belgrave Road, Chauhan introduces readers to Mira, a young woman navigating life in a new country and a marriage that leaves little room for choice. When she forms a quiet bond with Tahliil, she must decide whether connection and selfhood are risks worth taking and what freedom might really mean.
We asked Chauhan to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped his life and influenced his debut novel.
What was the first book you were obsessed with as a child?
Unlike most writers, I wasn’t a particularly voracious reader as a child. I really only started reading for pleasure once I turned sixteen. Having said this, a book that always stayed with me from when I was a child was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle primarily as it taught me that life was about transformation and that transformations can be difficult but also rewarding. As an adult, I love it even more for its food positivity. That we can eat our way through life without fear and judgement and still emerge victorious and even more beautiful than before feels somewhat empowering and miraculous!
What book helped you through puberty?
Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai. A coming-of-age story set in Sri Lanka about a boy named Arjie who is forced to deal with different types of conflict over the course of this life. The personal – his own homosexuality, and the political – the civil tensions existing within Sri Lanka between Tamil people and Sinhalese. I was very young when I read this book and some of the political subtext was undoubtedly lost on me, but one of the things I remember vividly is how the writer showed the various sides of different conflicts. Upon reading it, I immediately understood the world to be a more complicated place where people are not just good or bad but a mixture of both. At a personal level, I was very bullied as a child, and this book acted a kind of cushion against the world. I felt seen and understood. In that sense, the book came into my life at exactly the right moment.
What book do you wish 18-year-old you had read?
The Good Terrorist or The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing, primarily as they are such great examples of books which look at the juxtaposition of the personal against the political and how these two forces connect and feed off each other within the context of a single life. The writing is very accessible whilst also being searching and intelligent. Had I read these books at eighteen they would have shown me a different way to write, as prior to then my writing was overly descriptive and seeking to draw attention to itself when it would have benefited from being the opposite. Doris Lessing is one of my most cherished writers.
If you were to teach a class on Damn Good Writing, what books would make the syllabus?
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry for a lesson in how to love and honor your characters. It’s such a moving, compelling book that stayed with me for a very long time (decades) after I finished reading.
Any book of short stories by Alice Munro – she is so gifted at taking a reader through a character’s life in only a few pages by making leaps through time and by ordering her paragraphs in such a way as to make each story sing. I know this choice may prove controversial but it’s impossible to ignore the impact of Alice Munro’s stories on me as a writer and as a reader. There is so much one can learn from them.
Disgrace by J M Coetzee for a lesson in ‘effortless prose’ beneath which I am sure lies a lot of planning and effort. He is, I think, a very thoughtful writer who crafts his stories and then somehow removes himself from them which I think is difficult but necessary – not just for him but for any writer. I would say the same is also true for writers like Claire Keegan and Jhumpa Lahiri. This is not to say they don’t have a voice – they very much do – but it’s recognizing that there is no heavy hand left by them which gets in the way of the reader. In this way, their work inhabits a kind of freedom. Reading them becomes a freeing experience.
What books helped guide you while writing your book?
In some way all the books I have mentioned in this interview. I started writing when I was 16. I am now 41. That’s many years of reading and writing and learning and unlearning. But these books and authors have taught me what’s possible with words and have brought me closer to my own voice. A Fine Balance showed me how to write about real humans who are imprisoned within systems which aren’t of their own creation. You could say Belgrave Road is also a book about this very thing.
What books are on your nightstand now?
The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam