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CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF 2022 BY THE GUARDIAN AND THE NEW STATESMAN'A STAND OUT' SUNDAY TIMES'STARTLINGLY HONEST AND DEVASTATINGLY GOOD' RACHEL CLARKE, GUARDIAN'BRILLIANT' OBSERVER'POWERFUL AND EVOCATIVE' ADAM KAY'YOU EMERGE KNOWING HOW LUCKY YOU ARE TO HAVE READ IT' ALI SMITH, NEW STATESMANFrom the frontlines of the NHS, the story of a junior doctor's love, loss and grief through the Covid-19 crisis------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In early 2020, junior doctor Roopa Farooki lost her sister to cancer. But just weeks later, she found herself plunged into another kind of crisis, fighting on the frontline of the battle taking place in her hospital, and in hospitals across the country. Everything is True is the story of Roopa's first forty days of the Covid-19 crisis from the frontlines of A&E and the acute medical wards, as struggling through her grief, she battles for her patients' and colleagues' survival. Working thirteen-hour shifts, she returns home each evening to write through her exhaustion, chronicling the devastating losses and slowly eroding dehumanisation happening in real time on the ward.
'Few novels are life-changing; this one just might be' Daily Mail Leaving home is one thing. Surviving is another. In 1940s Lahore, the Punjab, two brothers and two sisters are beaten and browbeaten into 'good children'. Each has a destiny to fulfil. Sully and Jakie will be doctors, Mae and Lana dutiful wives. But Sully falls for an unsuitable girl, Jakie an unsuitable man. Mae and Lana disgrace themselves and disobey. Rebelling is easy when you're far from home. But the ties that bind them across cultures, continents and time can never be broken. And when, decades later, death draws them back, it will affect them in ways they never imagined.
Shona Karim is in love. When she first sets eyes on Parvez at the age of ten, she knows he is the man of her dreams. Just like her father – tricked into marriage by her shamelessly deceitful mother – she is a hopeless romantic. Years later, lying to themselves and their families, the young lovers elope to start a new life above a sweet shop in south London. But Shona’s inheritance is one of double lives and complicit deception. As time passes, and her children are born, it appears that she too has dark secrets that are about to be exposed. Can a family built on lies ever shake off its legacy? And can love ever be strong enough to right the wrongs of the past? ‘Combining the cultural heritage of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane with the intimate humour of family life in Roddy Doyle’s novels’ Easy Living ‘Has the right blend of laughter and tears, a Brit-Asian crossover worth putting your feet up for’ She
Be careful what you wish for . . .There are only two tragedies in life. One is not getting your heart's desire - and the other? Getting it. Fourteen-year-old Lucky Khalil is passionate about three things: football, Star Wars and Portia, the girl who works in his grandfather's corner shop. In that order. While Lucky pursues his girl and his dreams of one day scoring for England, his mother Delphine, the woman who seems to have everything, fantasizes about rediscovering the freedom of her youth. But rekindling a relationship with her father-in-law Zaki is only going to end in disaster . . . And, as they move closer to their dreams, do they risk losing sight of what's really important? Praise for Bitter Sweets 'A charming read, hugely enjoyable, brilliantly plotted . . . wears its multiculturalism lightly' Jackie Kay, Chair of the Orange Award for New Writers, 2007 'Witty, thought-provoking, sad and uplifting' Sunday Telegraph
THE FLYING MAN is the story of the ultimate immigrant from the twice Orange Prize long-listed author Roopa Farooki. Meet Maqil - also known as Mike, Mehmet, Mikhail and Miguel - a chancer and charlatan. A criminally clever man who tells a good tale, trading on his charm and good looks, reinventing himself with a new identity and nationality in each successive country he makes his home, abandoning wives and children and careers in the process. He's a compulsive gambler - driven to lose at least as much as he gains, in games of chance, and in life. A damaged man in search of himself.
At 23, Asif is less than he wanted to be. His mother's sudden death forced him back home to look after his youngest sister, Yasmin, and he leads a frustrating life, ruled by her exacting need for routine. Everyone tells Asif that he's a good boy, but he isn't so sure. Lila has escaped from home, abandoning Asif to be the sole carer of their difficult sister. Damaged by a childhood of uneven treatment, as Yasmin's needs always came first, she leads a wayward existence, drifting between jobs and men, obsessed with her looks and certain that her value is only skin deep. And then there is Yasmin, who has no idea of the resentment she has caused. Who sees music in colour and remembers so much that sometimes her head hurts. Who doesn't feel happy, but who knows that she is special. Who has a devastating plan. THE WAY THINGS LOOK TO ME is an affecting, comically tender portrayal of a family in crisis, caught between duty and love in a tangled relationship both bitter and bittersweet.
‘It’s time to stop fighting, and go home' Those were the words that finally persuaded Aruna to walk out of her East London flat in the middle of breakfast, wearing flimsy sandals on a brisk Spring day, carrying nothing more substantial than a handbag, and keep on walking. Leaving behind her marriage to Patrick, her adoring husband of less than a year, she gets on a plane to Singapore, running back home to the city and the old life she had run away from in the first place. And there she finds her childhood friend and former lover, Jazz, troubled by the pleas of the dying father he refuses to forgive, who has never stopped waiting for her to return. After years spent fleeing the ghosts of her past - the life that she and Jazz tried and failed to make together, the terrible revelation that tore their relationship apart, and the troubling psychological diagnosis she would rather forget - Aruna is about to discover that running away is easy. It is coming home - making peace with herself, Jazz and those they have loved - that is hard.
Twins Ali and Tulip have grown up with a surgeon mother and so have picked up lots of knowledge of first aid, medicine, and the ways of the hospital - they even know where the secret biscuit drawer is. When their mother becomes unnaturally sleepy and forgetful, they become suspicious of hernew boyfriend. With help - and a watchful eye - from their mysterious wheelchair-bound gran, they set out to crack the mystery.Will they succeed? They'll need a combination of fast talking, quick thinking, rule breaking, medical investigation, and determination - plus a good dash of "that spooky twin thing" - to cure this crime.A fun fresh take on the detective genre, full of excitement, humour, and medical know-how!
'Few novels are life-changing; this one just might be' Daily Mail Leaving home is one thing. Surviving is another. In 1940s Lahore, the Punjab, two brothers and two sisters are beaten and browbeaten into 'good children'. Each has a destiny to fulfil. Sully and Jakie will be doctors, Mae and Lana dutiful wives. But Sully falls for an unsuitable girl, Jakie an unsuitable man. Mae and Lana disgrace themselves and disobey. Rebelling is easy when you're far from home. But the ties that bind them across cultures, continents and time can never be broken. And when, decades later, death draws them back, it will affect them in ways they never imagined.
Ali and Tulip know all about being medics. They know something about being detectives too, which is a good job because there's a new case that needs their skills. A fun fresh take on the detective genre, full of excitement, humour, and medical know-how!