Published
21 September 2023
ISBN
978-1911427353
Format
Dimensions
B-format
Pages
224
Everything can seem possible on a London bus—there is something invigorating about being surrounded by strangers. You are on the 13, North London, heading for Boundary Road and no one is travelling light. Everyone has got something to share: love, desires, illusions and sometimes a touch of madness but two of the passengers have a past they can’t escape.
A visceral and powerful exploration of contemporary multi-cultural London. We’re on a bus in North London heading for Boundary Road; passengers get on and off leaving something of themselves behind. Connections are made, lives woven together, and, as the bus moves, its unsuspecting passengers become aware that the ordinary can be violently unsettling and at the heart of human experience. A man haunted by his past and the many pasts of his family, but in love with the present; all that’s greeting his senses right now. He’s black with blue eyes. He’s charming but he’s got a secret waiting to catch up with him. A woman stifled by lack of affection but determined to do what’s right. A man obsessed with architecture and in love with a painting. Everyone talks; layers of privacy are peeled away laying bare a wide variety of lives, desires and illusions as we head towards Boundary Road on the 13.
For an interview with Ami Bookanista
I really admired the intense, heartfelt, richly cumulative world of Boundary Road, an enthralling novel whose characters will stay with me for a long time.
– Alison Moore, author of The Lighthouse, shortlisted for the Booker
‘Rao skilfully treads the boundary between fiction and non-fiction to offer a fascinating cross section of contemporary multi-cultural London from the top of a double-decker bus. An engaging, insightful read.’
– Priscilla Morris, author of Black Butterflies, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction
As readers, we inevitably love to hear stories of others, and in capturing the vignettes on the bus, Rao has been able to magnify that even more creating a vibrancy and eclecticism which is so true to life.
– NB Magazine
An inventively structured, deftly observed and uncompromisingly raw snapshot of contemporary multicultural London.
– Mark Reynolds Bookanista
I felt immersed in the enclosed environment, the multi-cultural characters, the sights and sounds, the thoughts and opinions. Boundary Road hits hard. It’s a reminder of the complexity of human beings and their emotions and it delivers a powerful message about the fragility of life.
– Nicola, Short Book and Scribes
Registered in England and Wales, company number 08857369.
