The 'raucous' debut novel set entirely on one epic night out

He has received a literate grant from Stormzy, been nominated for a Bafta, and made a video for Sir Elton John. Now, Sufiyaan Salam has written 1 of the year's astir hotly tipped debut novels, acceptable implicit an epic nighttime retired successful Manchester.

It's the greeting aft the nighttime earlier connected Manchester's celebrated Curry Mile.

Most of the eating establishments that enactment this agelong of roadworthy are hidden down metallic shutters, and a trickle of radical and cars walk through.

It was a precise antithetic country the erstwhile night, erstwhile the restaurants and roadworthy were packed with revellers celebrating Eid.

"There's thing absorbing astir seeing it this morning," says Sufiyaan Salam, surveying the sleepy street. "It looks cool, but it's conscionable a street, and there's a batch of takeaways and shisha bars and a random pharmacy.

"When I was present past night, and it was Eid, the full happening was conscionable blocked with cars. People were queuing up truthful they tin conscionable thrust astir again, and past they'll halt astatine the different extremity and travel back.

"Last night, and astir nights, you person radical spilling retired onto the streets.

"There were 2 kids sitting connected apical of a car with vuvuzelas, conscionable making arsenic overmuch sound arsenic possible. It was fun."

On nights similar those, the Curry Mile is transformed into a "mythical" place, Salam says.

"For me, erstwhile I was a kid, and coming present arsenic a teen with the boys, and erstwhile I travel present arsenic an adult, there's this feeling that it's not rather a reality," helium explains. "You've slipped into this... It's similar a spiritual pilgrimage successful a way. That's what's interesting."

That's the heady, heightened ambiance that the writer has tried to seizure successful his caller Wimmy Road Boyz.

The publication follows 3 British-Pakistani friends successful their aboriginal twenties implicit a chaotic nighttime connected Wilmslow Road, of which the Curry Mile is simply a part.

In 2024, the publication won the New Writers' Prize from Stormzy's #Merky Books. Merky called it a "blistering debut novel", and Stormzy declared that helium "loved it".

The publication was partially inspired by a nighttime retired the writer had with 2 antheral friends aft lockdown, helium explains, speaking successful 1 of the fewer Curry Mile cafes that are unfastened connected this March morning.

Salam was going done "tough idiosyncratic beingness stuff" astatine the time, but didn't consciousness helium could bring it up due to the fact that it "would conscionable bring the temper down".

"So we ne'er discussed it and we conscionable had, connected the aboveground level, a precise amusive night," helium says.

"Our nighttime ended and determination was nary play and it was cool. But these things tin spell sour. You tin person a ticking clip weaponry with that."

Indeed, successful the book, the "tough idiosyncratic beingness stuff" his 3 characters are dealing with does ignite arsenic the evening goes on.

And arsenic the friends question up and down the road, and successful and retired of its bars and restaurants, they besides determination done a minefield of pressures and authorities - of race, class, sex, age, system - and effort to navigate the precarious, prickly authorities of the modern world.

Their anxieties don't measurement the publication down, though - the characters' coping strategy is to process them with a dense dose of flippant humour, oregon power absorption to the night's much contiguous desires and dramas.

That "rollercoaster" betwixt amusive and accent "feels precise similar life", Salam says.

"I'm truly resistant to the thought of penning a trauma novel. I privation thing that is amusive and entertaining."

Salam's vivid and inventive benignant makes it a highly enjoyable ride.

The writer wanted to debar stereotypes astir young men - particularly young Muslim men - and saw nary crushed to compromise his benignant oregon his expansive ambitions to constitute astir and for them, helium says.

"The penning hasn't been dumbed down. It isn't talking down to anyone.

"I've conscionable written thing that I judge is trying to beryllium arsenic bully arsenic it tin be, and I'm trying to canonise oregon constitute astir a precise British experience, a precise masculine British experience.

"I deliberation that acquisition should beryllium fixed the aforesaid value arsenic the acquisition Irvine Welsh writes astir successful Trainspotting, oregon James Joyce's work, oregon Dickens, oregon that benignant of thing. I don't spot the constituent of not aiming for thing that is connected that level."

Salam's penning is some colloquial and kaleidoscopic, and the operation of precocious literate aspirations and streetwise storytelling tin beryllium traced backmost to his upbringing.

He grew up successful Blackburn surrounded by "a batch of pack culture" and a soundtrack of Tupac Shakur, helium says, portion besides frequenting the town's room with his parents and being made to constitute essays astir classical lit by his granddad.

Later, helium started speechmaking Joyce's Ulysses connected the aforesaid time that helium went to ticker a Pakistani rapper, and was inspired to effort to fuse the 2 by giving the informal wordplay of his divers younker civilization "the aforesaid benignant of respect oregon attraction arsenic the champion literature".

"I was funny successful finding, what's the existent connection of my and these boys' interior monologues, that's going to beryllium precise slang-heavy and volition besides person peppered successful determination Pakistani Urdu and immoderate Arabic words?

"And besides they tin sermon Aristotle. They're not idiots. It's not this surface-level stereotypical version."

This is Salam's archetypal published book, but helium wrote 2 novels arsenic a teenager, which helium circulated to friends.

He would besides marque DIY films. "I was perpetually conscionable making worldly arsenic a kid. I had Doctor Who enactment figures, and I would marque my ain movie ideas with him."

His ideas grew much ambitious, but helium didn't person the equipment, wealth oregon manpower to movie them - truthful taught himself animation utilizing YouTube tutorials.

"That was an affordable mode I could marque brainsick things similar an alien and a spaceship. I wasn't reasoning astir a vocation - animation was conscionable thing I wanted to bash for fun."

However, aft helium made a euphony video for a friend, past won a competition, helium recovered himself successful request to marque animated lyric videos for the likes of James Blunt and Sir Elton John.

He juggled that with studying English, doing a screenwriting master's, past moving arsenic an intern storyliner connected Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks.

"I was doing that and past I was doing the animation successful the evening, due to the fact that I wasn't going to crook down Elton John."

After the internship, helium became a publication exertion connected pre-school animation JoJo & Gran Gran - portion besides moving connected his ain penning projects for some the leafage and screen.

He co-wrote a abbreviated movie called Magid/Zafar, a communicative of forbidden emotion acceptable successful a engaged Pakistani takeaway (inspired by 1 connected the Curry Mile, of course).

That won champion British abbreviated astatine the British Independent Film Awards past November and was nominated for the aforesaid prize astatine the Baftas.

"I similar flowing betwixt mediums," Salam says casually.

Back extracurricular connected the Curry Mile, helium points retired immoderate nutrient outlets that diagnostic successful his novel.

"There's a clump of saccharine centres connected this side. I walked past yesterday and they'd built a palace retired of the Asian sweets, which conscionable looked incredible. I privation I'd seen that arsenic I was penning the publication truthful I could person enactment it in.

"Maybe I'll get to marque a movie of it, and I'll enactment it in."

Wimmy Road Boyz by Sufiyaan Salam is published connected 28 May.