Search results for ""Author Huma Qureshi""

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.

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'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 from Georgette Heyer, she seeks temporary refuge in Paris and imagines a future full of possibility. And then her father has a stroke and everything changes. As Huma learns to focus on herself she begins to realise that searching for a suitor has been masking everything that was wrong in her life: grief for her father, the weight of expectation, and her uncertainty about who she really is. Marriage - arranged or otherwise - can't be the all-consuming purpose of her life. And then she meets someone. Neither Pakistani nor Muslim nor brown, and therefore technically not suitable at all. When your worlds collide, how do you measure one love against another? As much as it is about love, How We Met is also about falling out with and misunderstanding each other, and how sometimes even our closest relationships can feel so far away. Warm, wise and ultimately uplifting, this is a coming-of-age story about what it really means to find 'happy ever after'. "This beautiful, romantic memoir grabs you from the first page and won't let you go. Told with heart, wit and quiet restraint, How We Met is the story of how we can transcend the expectations of others and arrange our own happiness in life and in love." - Viv Groskop

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''Radiantly honest'' Mail on Sunday''Poignant'' Guardian''A gem of a novel'' iThe remarkable debut novel from critically acclaimed writer Huma Qureshi: a poignant story of art and sisterhood, family, marriage and betrayalHana 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

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The remarkable debut novel from critically acclaimed writer Huma Qureshi: an engrossing story of art and sisterhood, family, marriage and betrayal'Poignant and impressionistic . . . highly readable and relatable' Guardian'A gem of a novel' i'A beautifully written debut' RedHana has a perfect job, a perfect home, a perfect marriage. It is her younger sister Mira who is a mess. But Hana wants children and her husband is hesitating, and perhaps her control is slipping.Mira dreams of a creative life but she's stuck working at a local café. She hates her flatmate and Hana's dismissal of her writing but she can't find the right inspiration.One night, a fight between Hana and her husband sparks something in Mira: the words ring in her head and she starts typing. But what can you borrow from your sister? And what can be forgiven?'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'Reading Qureshi's crystal prose is a rare pleasure. I found Playing Games unputdownable' Molly Aitken, author of The Island Child

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'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

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"This beautiful, romantic memoir grabs you from the first page and won't let you go. Told with heart, wit and quiet restraint, How We Met is the story of how we can transcend the expectations of others and arrange our own happiness in life and in love." - Viv Groskop; 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 from Georgette Heyer, she seeks temporary refuge in Paris and imagines a future full of possibility. And then her father has a stroke and everything changes.; As Huma learns to focus on herself she begins to realise that searching for a suitor has been masking everything that was wrong in her life: grief for her father, the weight of expectation, and her uncertainty about who she really is. Marriage - arranged or otherwise - can't be the all-consuming purpose of her life. And then she meets someone. Neither Pakistani nor Muslim nor brown, and therefore technically not suitable at all. When your worlds collide, how do you measure one love against another?; As much as it is about love, How We Met is also about falling out with and misunderstanding each other, and how sometimes even our closest relationships can feel so far away. Warm, wise and ultimately uplifting, this is a coming-of-age story about what it really means to find 'happy ever after'.

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