Join The Candid Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly for an evening with Manish Chauhan to discuss his debut novel, Belgrave Road.

Belgrave Road, Leicester. Mira and Tahliil, like many other lovers before, meet at work.
Mira's days are filled with duty and light on freedom. In a new country, living with a husband she barely knows - and who she fears she'll never love - Mira is desperate to discover all that her new life in England might offer.

And then there's Tahliil. The quiet, beautiful man she sees at work each day. With a depth in his eyes and a face full of questions. The first person in this new world who listens to Mira's hopes for who she yearns to become.

But beyond their lunchtime encounters, the pair couldn't lead more different lives: the duties that bind them, the homes they are trying to build threaten to subsume them. As Mira and Tahliil navigate the deep and turbulent waters of their new worlds can they find a way to be together, and will finding each other set them free?

Manish Chauhan hasn't lived in Leicester - the place of his birth - for many years, but it's a place that goes on living inside him. A kind of ocean that keeps offering up its pearls, its stories. Belgrave Road is one such story. Set in the community that formed him, and amongst the people he most admires, who have lived many lives in search of home. A love letter to his beginnings, to a place he visits often, and to those wanting to make something of their lives the way he hopes to. His short story Pieces was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Awards, and his work has also been shortlisted for the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize and the Exeter Short Story Competition. This is his debut novel.

We encourage attendees to read the book beforehand to allow for an open discussion on the night, but copies of the book will also be available to purchase online via the Book & Ticket bundle – to be collected at the event