This Green and Pleasant Land - Winner of The Diverse Book Awards 2020
Verlag | Bonnier Books UK |
Auflage | 2019 |
Seiten | 464 |
Format | 15,3 x 23,4 x 3,2 cm |
Gewicht | 514 g |
Artikeltyp | Englisches Buch |
ISBN-10 | 1785767526 |
EAN | 9781785767524 |
Bestell-Nr | 78576752UA |
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS 2020. Timely, humorous and deeply moving. This is the absolute standout new novel by acclaimed author (and 2018 Asian Woman of Achievement nominee) Ayisha Malik
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS
'Tender, challenging and as warm as it was razor-sharp' Beth O'Leary
'If you've read Joanna Cannon I think you'll love this' Simon Savidge
'A sublimely witty and touching story' Jonathan Coe
The standout new novel by acclaimed author Ayisha Malik - perfect for fans of David Nicholls and Candice Carty-Williams.
In the sleepy village of Babel's End, trouble is brewing.
Bilal Hasham is having a mid-life crisis. His mother has just died, and he finds peace lying in a grave he's dug in the garden. His elderly Auntie Rukhsana has come to live with him, and forged an unlikely friendship with village busybody, Shelley Hawking. His wife Mariam is distant and distracted, and his stepson Haaris is spending more time with his real father.
Bilal's mother's dying wish was to build a mosque in Babel's End, but when Shelley gets wind of this scheme, she unleashes the forces of hell. Will Bilal's mosque project bri ng his family and his beloved village together again, or drive them apart?
Warm, wise and laugh-out-loud funny, This Green and Pleasant Land is a life-affirming look at love, faith and the meaning of home.
Rezension:
Occasionally a book comes along that perfectly captures the prevailing mood. Ayisha Malik's third novel, about a Muslim family cosily embedded in the heart of middle-class white England, is a witty meditation on race politics, what it means to be British, and the complexities of personal identity. At the heart of this book lies the simple question: who decides to who and what we belong? When Bilal's mother passes, bequeathing him with a death-bed wish that he build a mosque in the green and pleasant village of West Plimpington, she sets off a chain of events that soon brings the entire community to loggerheads. Bilal, a semi-tragic figure undermined by his own wavering convictions, unwittingly finds himself a lightning rod for the outrage of family, friends, colleagues, and, ultimately, all those who view change as threat. With laugh-out-loud moments of absurdist comedy, poignant observations of human nature, and philosophical musings on the wisdom and nature of 'fitting in', this is Malik's best work to date. Satirical, controversial, knowing and essential Vaseem Khan