Tawseef Khan In Conversation With Rebecca Watson – Putney

Join us in welcoming Tawseef Khan in conversation with Rebecca Watson, to discuss his debut novel Determination, a heart-breaking, honest, and deeply important story doubling as a trenchant political critique of UK immigration.

Jamila Shah is twenty-nine and exhausted.An immigration solicitor tasked with running the precious family law firm, Jamila is prone to being woken in the middle of the night by frantic phone calls from clients on the cusp of deportation. Working under the shadow of the government’s ‘hostile environment’, she constantly prays and hopes that their ‘determinations’ will result in her clients being allowed to stay.

In this polyphonic, assured and character-driven debut, we meet the staff of Shah & Co Solicitors, who themselves arrived in the UK not too long ago, and their clients, more recent arrivals who are made to jump through hoops to create a life for themselves whilst trying to achieve some semblance of normality.
‘A compassionate, beautifully told portrait populated by lives that circle the UK’s lamentable immigration story. This is a story of determination, also grief, hope, loss and desperation, as well as a reminder of the care, patience and kindness at the human end of a broken system‘ – GUY GUNARATNE, author of In Our Mad and Furious City

‘A novel as believable as any memoir, offering a kaleidoscope of lives and characters, all of whom seem to extend beyond these pages. A truly astonishing and self-assured piece of work’ – ADAM FARRER

Rebecca Watson is the author of little scratch, which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize and was adapted into an acclaimed play. Watson was chosen as one of the Observer’s 10 best debut novelists of 2021 and as a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. Her sophomore novel I Will Crash, published in July, is a moving, powerfully honest novel about how we love, how we grieve and how we forgive.