Saraswati

An Observer Best Debut Novel 2025

A debut novel bursting its banks with wondrous storytelling, for fans of David Mitchell, Sunjeev Suhota and Yaa Gyasi

'A writer we will be talking about for years to come' Neel Mukherjee

'A new talent of the kind that comes along rarely' Observer

Centuries ago, they say that the holy river Saraswati flowed through what is now Punjab, alongside the Indus River and its five tributaries.

Some dismiss this as myth or allegory, but when Satnam arrives in Punjab for his grandmother's funeral, he finds water in the dried-up well behind her house. The discovery sets in motion a contentious government scheme to unearth this lost river as an act of Hindu nationalist pride.

Tracing each river as threads in a tapestry, Gurnaik Johal takes us through the lives of seven people whose histories resurface with a river that will change the course of their future forever. Ambitious, moving and brimming with rich folklore, Saraswati is a debut novel from one of Britain's most-feted young writers.