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You can't choose who you fall in love with, they say. If only it were that simple. Growing up in Walsall in the 1990s, Huma straddled two worlds - school and teenage crushes in one, and the expectations and unwritten rules of her family's south Asian social circle in the other. Reconciling the two was sometimes a tightrope act, but she managed it. Until it came to marriage.
'A deft, satisfying and poignant collection of stories . . . I loved it.' PANDORA SYKES 'Huma Qureshi is a writer I know I'll be reading for years and years and years' Natasha Lunn, author of Conversations on Love A breathtaking collection of stories about our most intimate relationships, and the secrets, misunderstandings and silences that haunt them. A daughter asks her mother to shut up, only to shut her up for good; an exhausted wife walks away from the husband who doesn't understand her; on holiday, lovers no longer make sense to each other away from home. Set across the blossoming English countryside, the stifling Mediterranean, and the bustling cities of London and Lahore, Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love illuminates the parts of ourselves we rarely reveal. *Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize* *Longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize* 'These are stories of fierce clarity and tenderness - I loved them' LUCY CALDWELL, author of Intimacies 'Qureshi writes with courage' Ingrid Persaud, author of Love After Love
In Spite of Oceans: Migrant Voices explores the individual journeys of generations in transition from the South Asian subcontinent to England. Poignantly written, and based on real events and interviews, what emerges is the story of lives between cultures, of families reconciling customs and traditions away from their ancestral roots, and of the tensions this necessarily creates. We hear from the young bride from Bangladesh, married to a stranger, who comes to England to navigate life with a man she cannot love; from an Indian father who struggles to come to terms with his son's mental illness and hides it from people he knows; about how a mother and daughter's relationship was shattered in the clash over the Pakistani traditions her daughter chooses not to follow. Each narrative describes a journey that is both literal and deeply emotional, exploring the hold an inherited culture can have on the decisions and choices we make. At times heart-breaking, at times inspirational, In Spite of Oceans brings to life the pull of the past and the push of the future, and the evolving nature of what we understand as home.
Every year on Leila's birthday Shalini kneels by the wall with a little yellow spade and scoops dry earth to make a pit for two candles. One each for herself and for Riz, the husband at her side.But as Shalini walks from the patch of grass where she held her vigil the man beside her melts away. It is sixteen years since they took her, her daughter's third birthday party, the last time she saw the three people she loves most dearly: her mother, her husband, her child.There are thirty-two candle stubs buried in that lawn, and Shalini believes her search is finally drawing to a close. When she finds Leila, she will return and dig up each and every one.
'A Stylist pick for best new non-fiction for 2021' "A sweet, touching memoir about family, faith and love. There's a purity and simplicity to Huma's writing, as she attempts to reconcile the sprawling weight of expectation with her own desire for a contained but free life. But what does a life on her own terms look like? What even are her own terms? A consolation to others who have trod this very path, enlightening for those of us who haven't, you'll be rooting for not just Huma, but for everyone she loves too." - Pandora Sykes "A beautiful, refreshing and honest memoir about family, love, inheritance and loss" - Nikesh Shukla, author of Brown Baby You can't choose who you fall in love with, they say. If only it were that simple. Growing up in Walsall in the 1990s, Huma straddled two worlds - school and teenage crushes in one, and the expectations and unwritten rules of her family's south Asian social circle in the other. Reconciling the two was sometimes a tightrope act, but she managed it. Until it came to marriage. Caught between her family's concern to see her safely settled down with someone suitable, her own appetite for adventure and a hopeless devotion to romance honed
'Radiantly honest' Mail on Sunday 'Poignant' Guardian 'A gem of a novel' i The remarkable debut novel from critically acclaimed writer Huma Qureshi: a poignant story of art and sisterhood, family, marriage and betrayal Hana is a successful lawyer, with a perfect home and marriage. But she longs to be a mother, and her husband remains hesitant. Mira, her younger sister, is stuck working at a local café, renting a room from a flatmate she hates. She dreams of a creative life, but just she can't find the right inspiration. One night, Mira witnesses an argument between Hana and her husband. Their words spark something in her and she starts typing. But what stories are ours to tell? And how much can be forgiven? 'Huma Qureshi writes with wisdom and heart' Pandora Sykes 'Warm and moving . . . Playing Games thoughtfully and elegantly considers what it means to be a sister, a mother and a writer' Chloë Ashby, author of Wet Paint 'A riveting and evocative tale of two sisters navigating love, loss and desires' Zeba Talkhani, author of My Past is a Foreign Country
Motherhood is life-changing. Joyful. Disorientating. Overwhelming. Intense on every level. It's the best, most awful job. From dating as a single mum to adopting your baby, becoming a stepmother to enduring a miscarriage, there are a million different ways to be a mother. Yet some voices are still too often heard above others. It's time to broaden the conversation. From the introduction: 'We need to talk about all the different ways of being a mother. The true, dirty business of motherhood is a constellation of experiences. That is the only universal: everybody finds their own way through. At its core, this is a book about love. It's a snapshot of reality, told in twenty-two dazzling voices; the best job in the world, and simultaneously the most awful. Because motherhood is everything at once: pleasure and pain, anger and tenderness, light and shade. In short, true love.'
The propaganda of misinformation and hoaxes disseminated through print, graphics, and social media has altered the social landscape of this nation. It has led to multiple cases of lynching, mob violence, defamation and riots, and continues to pose a serious threat to Indian democracy. India Misinformed: The True Story, written by the team of Alt News, a fact-checking website that debunks fake information - and edited by Pratik Sinha, Dr Sumaiya Shaikh and Arjun Sidharth - identifies the purveyors of fabricated news, exposes the propaganda machinery and familiarizes readers with techniques to detect these menacing stories.Was Jawaharlal Nehru anti-Hindu? Was Narendra Modi declared one of the most corrupt prime ministers in the world? Is Sonia Gandhi the fourth richest woman in the world? Did Rahul Gandhi register as a non-Hindu at the Somnath Temple? With photographs to establish its claims, India Misinformed: The True Story presents the real picture.
‘Captivating and heartbreaking’ Stylist ‘Brought me close to tears’ Beth O’Leary, author of The Flatshare