This Green and Pleasant Land
Ayisha Malik
01 October 2020
9781785764509464 pages
Synopsis
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 bring 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.
'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 bring 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.
I absolutely devoured this book . . . It was tender, challenging and as warm as it was razor-sharp - I was in awe of Ayisha's ability to cut you to the core in one paragraph and make you laugh in the next. Every single character was fascinating, and so many of them stayed with me after finishing the book that I was basically carrying the whole village round in my head for a while . . .Beth O'Leary, author of The Flatshare
Beautifully written. If you've read Joanna Cannon I think you'll love thisSimon Savidge
A gorgeous, funny, smart, uplifting story about seeking unity during times of division. Wish I could prescribe it to the countryDaisy Buchanan
