Nazneen's inauspicious entry to the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a Bangladeshi village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to Chanu. Her life in London's Tower Hamlets is, on the surface, calm. For years, keeping house and rearing children, she does what is expected of her. Yet Nazneen walks a tightrope stretched between her daughters' embarrassment and her husband's resentments. Chanu calls his elder daughte...
Free-spirited and rebellious, Saira has grown up in California with her beautiful, obedient sister Ameena. From childhood, she has broken the boundaries between her desire for independence and her family's traditions - in particular, her Bombay-bred mother's idea of how girls should behave. Now, hungry for experience and curious about the world, Saira travels to Karachi for a wedding, and stumbles on family secrets that will shape the rest of her life. It's the beginning of a journey of understa...
Famously known throughout their community as the ‘It’ girls of Yorkshire, Farrah and her sisters were popular, rebellious, edgy, and fashionable ‘influencers’ of their time and heavily into 1970s British culture and its music scene, much to the dismay of their Punjabi mother. Set against a backdrop of turbulent multi-cultural and politically volatile Britain and told through the eyes of Farrah, the youngest of four sisters and one brother living in Yorkshire and raised, unbeknown to the wider...
“I think we got off on the wrong foot, with you telling me I had to be killed and then me getting all upset about it. Let’s start again. My name is Jameela, and I’m a writer. What do you do, besides . . . assassinations? Is that a hobby or more of a full-time thing?” Jameela Green has only one wish: to see her memoir on the New York Times bestseller list. When that doesn’t work out, she decides that her best next step is to make a deal with God, so she heads over to her local mosque. The ideal...
Multi-prizewinning and internationally acclaimed Yan Lianke -- 'China's most controversial novelist' (New Yorker) -- returns with a campus novel like no other following a young Buddhist as she journeys through worldly temptationTo tell the truth, religious faith is really just a matter of believing stories. The world is governed by stories, and it is for the sake of stories that everyone lives on this earth.Yahui is a young Buddhist at university. But this is no ordinary university. It is popula...
A young girl grows up in a family uprooted by the terror of an Islamic Revolution, where her culture, her gender, and her education are in peril. For the curious and imaginative Moji, there is no better place to grow up than the lush garden of her grandparents in Tehran. However, as she sits with her sister underneath the grapevines, listening to their grandfather recount the enchanting stories of One Thousand and One Nights, revolution is brewing in her homeland. Soon, the last monarch of Iran...
Perfect for fans of Sonali Dev and Uzma Jalaluddin, Noreen Mughees’s immersive debut novel reunites star-crossed childhood sweethearts against all odds, only for their second chance to clash with their parents’ strict beliefs. Thirty-three-year-old hijabi Sana Saeed has put away her childhood dream of ishq—an all-consuming, sweeping love. The arranged dates she’s agreed to have failed time after time, and she has responsibilities to consider—namely her sweet, autistic younger brother, Zia. Sana...
A young woman defies convention in a small Pakistani village, with devastating results for her and her family. A stunning, immense beautiful novel about courage, family and the meaning of love, when everything seems lost… ‘A compelling and compassionate story’ Anna Mazzola, author of The Story Keeper ‘A shocking portrait of lives lived under the shadow of threat and prejudice. A brave book’ Vaseem Khan, author of the Inspector Chopra series 'A bold, gifted storyteller, dealing with a gri...
* A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2019 * * SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 * * LONGLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE 2019 * 'BIRD SUMMONS is a magic carpet ride into the forest of history and the lives of women. Deep and wild' Lucy Ellmann, Booker-shortlisted author of DUCKS, NEWBURYPORT Salma, happily married, tries every day to fit into life in Britain. When her first love contacts her, she is tempted to risk it all and return to Egypt. Moni gave up a career in banking...
**LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024**Reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir finds love and hope in Shakespeare and Palestine.‘A vital storyteller’ALI SMITHAfter years away from her family’s homeland, and reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit her older sister Haneen. On her arrival, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.When Sonia meets the charismatic Mariam, a local director,...
