by Ayisha Malik
‘What? Going on about religion?’
‘Yeah,’ he said.
A group of transvestites started singing and clapping at the bride and groom. Uncle Mouch got out some money and gave it to them.
‘Hai hai,’ said one, coming over to Sean and me, ‘goray rang ka zamana kabhi hoga na purana –’
I started laughing.
‘What’s he . . . she saying?’
‘They’re regaling about the fact that you’re white. You’ve pulled.’
Sean nodded at them in satisfaction. I got up and walked over to the mosque while everyone carried on with their food. Conall was already there, waiting for me.
‘Are you sure?’ he said, holding my hands.
I wanted to cry because of all the memories we wouldn’t make in London. So many of them would remain here, static in a place that was never home. We stood outside Tooba Mosque, about to go in to get a divorce, just as my mum celebrated her marriage.
‘You know what it’ll mean, getting divorced?’ he said.
‘What?’
‘No chance of you and me getting married again until you marry someone else.’
I looked at him, confused. What was he talking about? And then it dawned on me . . .
‘Oh shit. You’re right.’
I’d completely forgotten about that rule – once you’ve divorced someone you can’t marry them again unless you’ve married someone else in between. He looked at me, seriously, my heart feeling like there was a two-tonne truck weighing on it.
‘Speaking of,’ he added. ‘You’ll never guess who Sean told me he’d come across on Tinder?’
‘Who?’ I asked, wondering if one of the girls had decided to set up a profile for me. It sounded so much like something I’d do, you have to wonder.
‘Suj.’
Hain? ‘Shut the hell up.’
He smiled and I looked into the distance, thinking of all of life’s bloody ironies.
‘I suppose we’d better get on with life then,’ I said.
He clenched his jaw, his grip tightening around my hand.
‘Sofe?’
‘Yes?’
He looked at me. ‘Nothing.’
‘What?’
‘It could be a long life, you know.’
‘It could.’ I stepped closer him. ‘So?’
‘So,’ he said, putting his arm round me for perhaps the last time. ‘I promise you – it’s not over yet.’
I never know what those words really mean – whether they’re just there to comfort a person, make them think that there is more than this, that you will return to the people who matter the most – doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. Or whether it’s prophetic. I thought of Mum’s life with Dad and now the life she’ll make with Uncle Mouch. You will always be with the people you are meant to be with. The heaviness lifted a little. I don’t know whether it makes me a fool or not, but it certainly gives me hope.
9.30 p.m.
From Sakib: Hi. Really glad you’ve found Conall. What happens now?
To Sakib: I’m coming home.
Acknowledgements
As my agent said: every author hates writing their second book, so I have many people to thank for making it easier.
Firstly, my agent, Nelle Andrew, who is always ready on the phone to talk through my latest panic about wanting to make a huge plot overhaul, and her husband, Jack Davy, who has become such a trusted reader. My unflappable editor, Joel Richardson, whose dedication to SOFIA KHAN has been unwavering and who even managed to stay calm when I accidentally sent him the first draft of the book. Cheers for not tearing up our contract after that.
Thank you to everyone at Bonnier for their hard work, including Claire Johnson-Creek, Emily Burns and Bec Farrell. Particularly Alex Allden for the beautiful cover design.
Also, team Midas for the work they did on the first book, especially Eve Wersocki.
Thank you, as always, to my Cornerstones family, even though I’ve now left them: Helen Bryant, Dionne Pemberton, Alex Hammond and Nicola Doherty for her editorial input. Special thanks to Helen who never bores of our Skype meetings and is always on hand to help me be a better writer. I’m also very grateful to Nafeesa Yousuf for her love and support.
Huge gratitude to Team Twenty7 authors whose secret thread on Twitter keeps me sane, entertained and makes me feel incredibly lucky to be in the company of such talented, wonderful human beings.
Also, thanks to my brown-writer team: Alex Caan, Abir Mukherjee, Vaseem Khan and Amit Dhand for helping me to keep it real by discussing things like the price of fish cakes.
And of course, thank you to the usual suspects: Mum, Nadia Malik, Clara Nelson, Sadaf Sethi, Jas Kundi, Amber Ahmed, Shai Chishty and Kristel Pous. I don’t know if I can properly express how much love there is for all of you in my rather compact heart but I have in mind to dedicate one book to each of you, so let’s hope I don’t run out of ideas. Or that you don’t run out on me.
I feel I should mention Zayyan and Saffah – my nephew and niece – even though they don’t help me write so much as hinder it. But they are the light of my life and so I am grateful for that.
A huge and warm thank you to all readers of the first SOFIA KHAN book, whose excitement rubbed off on me when I needed it most. You have no idea how important it’s been.
Lastly, of course, thanks to God for all of the above.
About the Author
Ayisha is a British Muslim, lifelong Londoner, and lover of books. She read English Literature and went on to complete an MA in Creative Writing (though told most of her family it was an MA in English Literature – Creative Writing is not a subject, after all.) She has spent various spells teaching, photocopying, volunteering, editing and being a publicist.
Also by Ayisha Malik
Sofia Khan is Not Obliged
Read on for an exclusive letter from Ayisha Malik and a chance to join her Readers Club . . .
Dear Reader,
The character, Sofia Khan, came to me in what seemed to be, at the time, a stroke of literary lightning. This was it – I was going to write a Muslim Bridget Jones. Of course, it only seemed like lightning because when I really thought about it, my own dating life – and those of my friends – read like a Helen Fielding novel with a religious twist. Sofia Khan was the embodiment of the Muslim women I know and admire, whose travails of balancing professionalism, love, family and faith were both absurd and painfully real. Emphasis on the painfully.
Truth be told, it didn’t feel like the most imaginative idea. But I played a safe game and I wrote what I knew; but what I knew, I realised, many people didn’t. The book didn’t begin with an agenda to educate people on the lives of modern Muslim women, and nor did it end with that, but you can’t live in the world and not think about the unique opportunity you’re being given when telling your side of the story. And what better way to temper hard-hitting subjects like racism and identity than in a novel where, essentially, everyone is a target for comedy?
As Sofia developed, along with the rather large cast of characters, things happened in the real world – as they inevitably do – only one of which was that we saw the rise of Isis. You’d think that this fact and writing would be quite unrelated, but as an author who also happens to be Muslim you can’t divorce these things, because the need to be understood grows. We are each fighting for our place in the world, but I feel that the likes of Sofia have to fight that little bit harder. You could say that if there was any agenda – apart from telling a story – it was to normalise being Muslim.
So, while Sofia Khan is Not Obliged was dubbed a rom-com, to me it was really a story of a struggle; the internal one, pitted against the external one, which is why I knew, from the beginning, who Sofia would end up with (and it was always going to be a happy ending, because there is enough misery in the world, thank you). But the struggle never ends, and although I felt I needed a break from Sofia, I also knew that I wanted to tackle the idea of a happily ever after
(because happy endings are all good and well, but let’s have a bit of reality too.) Her story became less about her place in the world, but her place in a marriage. Because how well do you really know a person? And what does love, after all, have to do with it?
After two books – and quite a lot of novel-based drama – I’m ready to move on from Sofia Khan for now. I’m very excited about my next book with Bonnier Zaffre about a Muslim couple, living in the English Village, Babbel’s End. The husband, Bilal Hasham, is left with a life – and village – altering bequest from his dying mother: to build a mosque in Babbel’s End. After eight years of living in the community and being an integral part of their daily goings-on, how is he going to reveal his plan to his friends in the village? And, more importantly, how will a minaret look wedged between the local church and Life Art gallery? This is a story that’s been in my head for over a year and a half and I can’t wait to share it with my readers.
If you would like to hear more from me about Sofia Khan and my future books, you can visit www.bit.ly/AyishaMalik where you can join the Ayisha Malik Readers Club. It only takes a moment, there is no catch and new members will automatically receive an exclusive short story. Your data is private and confidential and will never be passed on to a third party and I promise that I will only be in touch now and again with news about my books. If you want to unsubscribe, you can of course do that at any time.
In addition, if you would like to be involved and spread the word about my books, you can review Sofia Khan is Not Obliged and The Other Half of Happiness on Amazon, GoodReads, any other e-store, on your own blogs and social media accounts, or, of course, by dropping Sofia Khan casually into conversation if you liked the book. You’ll help other readers if you share your thoughts and you will help me too: you have no idea how much authors can learn from well thought out reviews.
But for now, thanks again for reading and for your interest in Sofia Khan and her tumultuous world. I’m incredibly lucky to have such dedicated and intelligent readers.
With my best wishes,
Ayisha
Reading Group Questions
•How important do you think it is to learn everything about your partner before marriage?
•How do you feel about the title? What do you think The Other Half of Happiness means?
•How important do you think it is to share your religious beliefs with your partner?
•To what extent does the support from in-laws and family members affect a marriage? In what ways is this relevant to Sofia and Conall’s marriage?
•What do you make of the ending? Do you think Sofia made the right choice?
•Could you have forgiven Conall for keeping that secret?
•If you’ve read Sofia Khan is Not Obliged, how did you feel about the way Sofia and Conall ended up?
•In what ways do the themes in The Other Half of Happiness differ to those in Sofia Khan is Not Obliged. Why do you think that is?
Want to join the conversation? Let us know what you thought of the book on Twitter using #SofiaKhan
Find out where it all began . . .
SOFIA KHAN IS NOT OBLIGED
‘Brilliant idea! Excellent! Muslim dating? Well, I had no idea you were allowed to date.’ He heaved towards me and looked at me sympathetically.
‘Are your parents disappointed?’
When her sort-of-boyfriend/possible-marriage-partner-to-be proves a little too close to his parents, Sofia Khan is ready to renounce men for good. Or at least she was, until her boss persuades her to write a tell-all exposé on the Muslim dating scene.
As her woes become her work, Sofia must lean on the support of her brilliant friends, baffled colleagues and baffling parents as she seeks stories for her book.
But in the marriage-crazy relatives, racist tube passengers and polygamy-inclined friends, could there be a lingering possibility that she might just be falling in love . . . ?
Available in paperback, ebook and audiobook
First published in Great Britain in 2017 by ZAFFRE PUBLISHING
80–81 Wimpole St, London W1G 9RE
www.zaffrebooks.co.uk
Copyright © Ayisha Malik, 2017
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The right of Ayisha Malik to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978–1–785–76073–0
Also available as an ebook
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Printed and bound by Clays Ltd, St Ives Plc
Zaffre Publishing is an imprint of Bonnier Zaffre, a Bonnier Publishing company
www.bonnierzaffre.co.uk
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