Good Intentions: ‘Captivating and heartbreaking’ Stylist

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Though he isn't present in every scene, he conveys each piece of the story leading up to the murder as if he were an omniscient narrator, capable of accessing every character's interior perspective. Slow to start for me, the story really built up to a suspenseful conclusion as the couple fails to let outside pressures impede on their love. An eloquently lyrical and thought-provoking novel, this book grapples with subject matters of everything you can imagine. Ever since he can remember, his family has sat in front of their TV together on New Year’s Eve, counted down to midnight, and watched the fireworks in London. Nur loves how she gets so excited about something that could so easily become mundane to other people, the same year in, year out.

My grasp of events was also hampered by the flitting between present day (2019) and at various points in the relationship from 2016 onwards, I would have preferred the story to start at the beginning and then move forwards rather than jumping about. Kasim Ali works at Penguin Random House and has previously been shortlisted for Hachette’s Mo Siewcherran Prize, longlisted for the 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize, and has contributed to The Good Journal. I think in some ways, I can understand the purpose behind it so that it can shape the story of the main relationship, but for the most part, I felt kind of lost. It's great to see Ali highlight and criticize cultural bigotry in this way without approaching it as a monolith that unquestionably applies across the board to any and every South Asian parent, and watching Imran seek out happiness alongside Nur in spite of the obstacles he faces is incredibly endearing.It was heart wrenching reading about Yasmina, an intelligent black woman from a good middle class family allowing herself to be treated like a dirty secret by a racist boyfriend who uses his family’s as an excuse to hide his bigotry.

In line with the previous point, Ali marvelously builds a full cast of identifiable, yet complex characters.It’s the countdown to the New Year, and Nur is steeling himself to tell his parents that he’s seeing someone. REP: previously suicidal Pakistani MC with anxiety, Sudanese SC's, gay Pakistani SC, and other Pakistani SC's.