by Ayisha Malik
Thank you to my khala, Tahseen Sadiq, for listening to me go on about the book in order to write the Urdu poem for me. I am also forever thankful for my niece and nephew, Zayyan and Saffah Adam, who test the limits of my patience and yet somehow manage to surpass the limits of joy. And of course, thank you to my mum and my sister – the women who have raised me and without whom I might have been very thin, but not nearly as blessed. Everything I know about grit and tenacity began with you.
I also want to thank readers around the world who support authors by buying, reviewing, shouting (positive things) about the books we write. It keeps us going.
Finally, thanks to God for each and every one of the above. They are a testament to the fact that it takes a village to raise a writer.
TRANSLATION OF (see here)
I left my country
And shifted the direction of time
In the crumbling of my sister’s home
I stitched together a world of my own
I fixed my gaze
On the English rain
However your life passed
My kismet was much the same
That you find something of which you wish to be a part
Is the flowering hope of my heart.
QUESTIONS FOR YOUR READING GROUP
1. What do you think are the main themes of this novel?
2. Who was your favourite character and why?
3. At what point in the novel did you most sympathise with Bilal?
4. How do you see Bilal – hapless hero or man of action?
5. Khala Rukhsana thinks that ‘home must be where you feel most alive’. How is the concept of home explored in this novel?
6. Do you think Mariam is always in love with Bilal but takes a while to realise it, or do you think she falls in love with him over the course of the book? In what way does the idea of ‘letting go’ underpin the novel?
7. Bilal’s sense of national and cultural identity differs from his mother’s. How does your sense of identity differ from your parents’?
8. Bilal’s grief for his mother and Anne’s for her son are both explored in this novel. In what different ways does grief – or loss – affect all the characters’ actions?
9. Rukhsana and Shelley share a strong friendship, even though they struggle to understand one another. In what ways do the friendships in this novel bridge divides and transcend difference?
10. What can the friendship between Bilal and Richard tell us about faith?
11. Can you truly be friends with someone wholly different to you?
12. Why do you think Gerald and Dan act up in the way they do?
13. Shelley declares ‘A place is it people’. In what ways is Babbel’s End defined by its inhabitants? How is your local community defined by the people who live there?
14. How representative do you think Babbel’s End is of the UK as a whole? How do you feel this story would be different if it took place in a large town or city instead of a village?
15. How do you think you would act if you were in Bilal’s situation? What about if you were in Shelley’s?
16. At the end of the novel, Bilal realises that ‘to live is to change, however hard it might be’. How do you think the characters change over the course of this novel?
First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Zaffre
This ebook edition published in 2019 by
ZAFFRE
80-81 Wimpole St, London, W1G 9RE
Copyright © Ayisha Malik, 2019
Jacket design by Nick Stearn
Jacket illustration © Andrew Davidson
The moral right of Ayisha Malik to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-785-76753-1
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-785-76754-8
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-785-76752-4
This ebook was produced by Palimpsest Books Production Limited, Falkirk, Stirlingshire
Zaffre is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk