'londonstani', gautam malkani's electrifying debut, reveals a britain that has never before been explored in the novel: a country of young asians and white boys (desis and goras) trying to work out a place for themselves in the shadow of the divergent cultures of their parents' generation. set close to the heathrow feed roads of hounslow, malkani shows us the lives of a gang of four young men: hardjit the ring leader, a sikh, violent, determined his caste stay pure; ravi, determinedly tactless, a sheep following the herd; amit, whose brother arun is struggling to win the approval of his mother for the hindu girl he has chosen to marry; and jas who tells us of his journey with these three, desperate to win their approval, desperate too for samira, a muslim girl, which in this story can only have bad consequences. together they cruise the streets in amit's enhanced beemer, making a little money changing the electronic fingerprints on stolen mobile phones, a scam that leads them into more dangerous waters. funny, crude, disturbing, written in the vibrant language of its protagonists - a mix of slang, bollywood, texting, hindu and bastardised gangsta rap - 'londonstani' is about many things: tribalism, aggressive masculinity, integration, cross-cultural chirpsing techniques, the urban scene seeping into the mainstream, bling bling economics, 'complicated family-related shit'. it is one of the most surprising british novels of recent years.