Three twentysomething British Pakistani friends drive through Manchester's Curry Mile in Sufiyaan Salam's high-octane debut novel, Wimmy Road Boyz. Written in breathless, multilingual prose that fizzes with Gen Z slang, the book follows Immy, Khan, and Haris on a night out that tests their friendship to its limits.
The trio are each looking for escape – from their past, present, or themselves – as they cruise in a hire car toward what might be the natural endpoint of a fraying bond. Immy is a 'bad-boy Muslim slut', Khan a budding mogul who recites Warren Buffett like hadiths, and Haris a philosophy obsessive. Their journey is punctuated by violence, heartbreak, and the weight of unspoken truths.
Salam's prose is electric, blending references from Sabrina Carpenter to Sarah Ahmed, and drawing comparisons with Rushdie and Kureishi. But beneath the banter lies a deeper exploration of the British Asian male experience, toxic masculinity, and the societal pressures of the 'good immigrant' narrative. The novel's title refers to Wilmslow Road, a 'shisha-haze mecca' that transforms into a 'colossal no man's land' as the night darkens.
History looms large, with chapter titles like 'the hummus intifada' and references to the 1947 Partition and the Mangla Dam displacement. Salam asks: for a generation starved of a future, what does survival look like? The novel tears through Britain's social fabric, examining community, youth culture, and the legacies of empire.
Wimmy Road Boyz is a literary performance like no other – a coming-of-age story that is also a state-of-the-nation novel. It is published by Footnote Press.
