Jyoti Patel’s debut novel, The things that we lost, explores the idea of loss in a number of different ways.
Having won the #Merky Books New Writer’s Prize in 2021, with the submission of an extract from what would become The things that we lost, Patel’s novel was published by #Merky Books, an imprint of Penguin, in 2023. Launched in 2018 in partnership with the British rapper, Stormzy, Merky Books aims to ‘publish books that will own – and change – the mainstream‘, allowing a new generation of readers and writers ‘to see themselves represented more regularly within the pages of a book‘.
Born in Paris and raised in North London – the main setting of the novel – Jyoti Patel is the daughter of British Indian parents and a graduate of the University of East Anglia’s Prose Fiction MA.
At the centre of The things that we lost is Nik, the son of a British Indian woman, Avani, and a white father, Elliot, who died before he was born. Following a prologue set in 1990, the narrative proper opens in July 2017: Nik has just done his A Levels and is awaiting his results before going to university in the autumn, but all his focus is on his beloved maternal grandfather who dies in the opening chapter.
The grief caused by the loss of his grandfather triggers an extreme response to the other losses in Nik’s life, most notably that of his father who he never knew, but also of his mother’s former partner and his stepfather, Paul, whom Nik meets again at his grandfather’s funeral.
Before he dies, Nik’s grandfather directs him to a key hidden at the back of a drawer in his desk, telling his grandson that ‘the key would lead him to something that once belonged to his father‘. This is the mystery that lies at the heart of the novel – and of Nik’s life. What happened to his father? And why does Nik’s mother refuse to talk about her dead husband?
Nik’s mother, Avani, is also experiencing loss. It becomes clear that she has never got over Elliot’s death, mainly because of her (possibly mistaken) assumption about how and why he died. She also harbours a number of unresolved issues around the breakdown of her relationship with Paul, and more significantly around her relationship with her mother (who dies before the novel begins).
In its structure the novel weaves back and forth in time: whilst for the most part it is set between July 2017 and January 2018, there are also chapters – and sections of chapters – set in 1979, 1989, 2990, 1993, 1995, 1998 and 2005. In all these earlier sections of the narrative the focus is Avani (with Nik only being alive in the chapter set in 2005): her friendship (and subsequent romantic relationship and marriage) with Elliot; her difficult relationship with her physically and emotionally abusive mother (with whom she comes into regular conflict about her Western ways) and the loss of closeness with her brother, Chand, who having been her strongest supporter ends up marrying a fellow Asian woman and toeing the family line.
For both Avani and Nik there is also a deep-seated loss related to their cultural and racial origins. Whilst Asian and subject to discrimination and racist attacks, they are both also resolutely Western, having very little connection to their ancestral homeland of India. In the novel’s prologue – set in 1990 – Avani is at university and after an uncomfortable interaction with a fellow student who loves India and assumes Avani has moved to England from there, admits to herself that she feels like a ‘fraud, being eighteen and having never visited the place that so much of her identity was attributed to‘.
Avani doesn’t actually visit India until the age of 26, when she goes there to scatter her husband Elliot’s ashes into the River Ganges – and Nik’s first visit is at the age of 18 when he travels there (with Avani) to scatter the grandfather’s ashes. As a result both characters’ Indian identities become wrapped up with grief and loss.
However, food is a positive way in which Nik and Avani express their Anglo-Indian identity, with both characters equally happy preparing and eating Western or Indian food. ‘ chips, beans and lemonade‘ and ‘pumpkin soup‘ sit comfortably alongside ‘khichdi‘ (a rice and lentil dish) and gallons of ‘chai‘ (a sweet spiced milky tea).
This combination of culinary cultures appears in the opening chapter when Nik goes to visit his dying grandfather in hospital, taking him chai and chocolate flapjacks. His grandfather has left the hospital breakfast tray ‘untouched‘ and Nik declares the hospital tea ‘rank‘, but grandfather ‘sips his chai and chews on pieces of flapjack‘ . Even the patient in the neighbouring bed, who had expressed a strong dislike for chai (‘”Too bloody hot for tea… all those extra spices in there. Scratches the old throat.”‘) is happy to taste the flapjacks: ‘Dark chocolate spills over the top of each square, still slightly sticky from a morning in the oven‘.
Whilst I’ve made flapjacks before for this blog these are a different (and I think better) recipe, and the chocolate topping adds that bit of luxury. I made them for my bookclub meeting – where we were discussing The things that we lost – with one member being a coeliac, so I used gluten-free oats (which worked fine), but you can obviously use normal porridge oats if there are no dietary restrictions.
FLAPJACKS
Ingredients (makes 24 small squares):
165g unsalted butter
125g soft light brown sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
250g porridge oats
pinch salt
pinch ground ginger
90g bar dark chocolate
90g bar milk chocolate
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C / 180C fan / Gas mark 6, and grease and line a 20cm square baking tin.
Place the butter, sugar and syrup in a large saucepan and place over a gentle heat, stirring until the mixture is melted and combined.
Remove from the heat and add the porridge oats, salt and ginger, stirring until combined.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top with the back of a spoon.
Cook for 20-25 minutes until light golden in colour – the mixture will harden as it cools so don’t worry that it is still soft when you take it out of the oven.
When the flapjacks are cooled you can go ahead with the chocolate topping. Break the chocolate into squares and place in a glass bowl over a small saucepan with a small amount of simmering water in it (the base of the bowl should not touch the water). Stir the chocolate until it has melted and then pour over the flapjack and smooth down with a knife. Leave to cool and harden and then cut the flapjack into squares.
