The corner shop is a British/Indian institution, and Sathnam Sanghera’s debut novel centres around the lives of three generations of a family’s Wolverhampton convenience store. Arjan Banga returns to the Black Country after the unexpected death of his father, and his family’s corner shop – with its aging adverts, dodgy shutters and irritating bell – is everything he tried to leave behind.

With nothing much to look forward to, including his own impending marriage, Arjan stirs up the past 50 years of his family’s history. Sanghera loosely based Marriage Material on Arnold Bennett’s 1908 novel The Old Wives’ Tale, and has humorously adapted 19th century preoccupations with marriage, family and gossip into 21st century Wolverhampton.

(William Heinemann, £14.99)

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