Jyoti Patel, 30, completed the rough draft of her debut novel, The Things That We Lost, in 2018.

By 2021, the book had won her the New Writers’ Prize, presented by Stormzy’s #Merky Books publishing imprint, ahead of its January 2023 release. Born in Paris to British-Indian parents and raised in north west London, Patel explores ‘family, loss and the lengths to which we go to protect the ones we love’ in what The Guardian calls ‘a big book, full of assured and affecting writing’. The Things That We Lost also made The Observer’s Best Debut Novel of 2023 list, which previously included Sally Rooney and Douglas Stuart.