These are the rules: Susham Kaur Dillon has broken every one.

Susham is a second-generation Indian teenager who lives in Dudley. Her mother is controlling. Her father has been sectioned. Her brother is worshipped. Her sister is engaged to the Indian Cornershop Mafia. Her other sister is a Bollywood wannabe. Her home is crammed with disapproving aunts, drunken uncles and irritating cousins. And no one can get her name right. The Pocket Guide to Being an Indian Girl is her Britain.

Like any teenager, Susham continually resists the expectations of her mother, her family and her society, but with every rebellious act she only deepens her frustration. Her father, the only family member with whom she has a real relationship, is regarded by others as an awkward embarrassment and is hidden away in the frenetic run-up to her sister's wedding. As her mother tries to keep up the pretence of a normal, middle-class Indian family, Susham's sarcastic outbursts and wild antics gain her no sympathy, especially when she springs her father from hospital…

Life is an endless procession of samosas, interfering relatives and social disaster, through which Susham blunders her way with biting humour, an acid tongue and a sharp eye. The rules for being an Indian Girl were made for the breaking.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

B.K. Mahal grew up in Derby, where she regularly visited her local library with her father and siblings. She enjoyed modern British fiction, but could find nothing that reflected the lives of those born with immigrant parents.

The Pocket Guide to Being an Indian Girl, B.K. Mahal's first novel, was written to fill that gap. In narrating the life of a second generation Indian teenager, B.K. Mahal forces us to reckon with our own stereotypes of "otherness". In her own words, she is "sick of victim literature", which focuses only on culture clash, rebellion and identity confusion. Nor does she wish to act as a spokeperson for her generation: she speaks from the margins of her community rather than for it.

B.K. Mahal drew from her own family background when writing The Pocket Guide. Her own father suffered a mental illness five years ago, and the experiences of her family coping with this illness profoundly influenced the book. Through the character of Susham's father, whose life of hard work has not reaped the rewards of his more affluent counterparts, B.K Mahal depicts the poorer Indian underclass that is so under-represented in both mainstream an Asian media.

B.K. Mahal was born and raised in Derby, where she still lives with her family. After studying English Literature and Media at the De Montfort University in Leicester, she began work on The Pocket Guide to Being an Indian Girl and gained a PGCE. She is 26 and works as a primary school teacher. She is currently writing a sequel.