Category: reviews

A young Pakistani woman is the victim of an unthinkable act of vengeance, when she defies tradition, facing seemingly insurmountable challenges and danger when she attempts to rebuild her life.

Multan, Pakistan. A conservative city where an unmarried woman over the age of twenty-five is considered a curse by her family.

Ayesha is twenty-seven. Independent and happily single, she has evaded an arranged marriage because of her family’s reduced circumstances. When she catches the eye of powerful, wealthy Raza, it seems like the answer to her parents’ prayers. But Ayesha is in love with someone else, and when she refuses to give up on him, Raza resorts to unthinkable revenge…

Ayesha travels to London to rebuild her life and there she meets Kamil, an emotionally damaged man who has demons of his own. They embark on a friendship that could mean salvation for both of them, but danger stalks Ayesha in London, too. With her life thrown into turmoil, she is forced to make a decision that could change her and everyone she loves forever.

Pakistani author Awais Khan is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario in Canada and Durham University in the UK, and he is an alumni of the Faber Academy. His debut novel, In the Company of Strangers, was published to great critical acclaim, as was his next novel, No Honour – which convincingly and emotively explored honour killings – was published in 2021. When he’s not writing, Awais teaches a popular online creative writing course to aspiring writers around the world, and regularly appears on TV and Radio in his native Lahore.

My thoughts: this is, in a word, stunning. Ayesha is an incredible character, I imagine she’ll be with me for a while. She undergoes horrific and life changing torture, mutilation, kidnap, rape and terror. But someone survives it all and doesn’t back down in the face of adversity, threats and slurs. After being the victim of an acid attack by her so-called fiancé, a cruel and dangerous man, whose wealth and family reputation protect him from prosecution, Ayesha moves to London to stay with her mother’s friend Jamila and her family.

There she meets Kamil, himself struggling with a tragic past and slowly piecing himself back together. The two become friends and help each other, attending a support group for survivors and building a new life for Ayesha, safe from her evil ex. Until she isn’t.

But even after she disappears, Kamil doesn’t give up. He tracks her down and makes the police pay attention with a powerful social media campaign. He won’t stop until Ayesha is safe, even if that means risking his own life.

This powerful and captivating novel brings the terrible realities of honour-based violence, political machinations and the very dangerous way wealthy people use their power and influence to get what they want. A feudal system coming into collision with the modern world, where other forces, social media, a globalised community and education means that the old ways are struggling to maintain their hold on society.

While this is set in Pakistan, the reality is that acid attacks are happening everywhere. I can think of several stories in recent years here in the UK, and affect not just the South Asian community. Ayesha is marked by the attack but it doesn’t stop her being beautiful and powerful in her own way. She is dignified and defiant, while some, including her own aunt (horrible woman) think she should just stay silent, she has the support of friends and her parents, as she chooses to stand up against Raza and his rich parents and seek justice.

The book is a call for change in society, both in the author’s home country, and elsewhere. Women like Ayesha should be allowed to choose their own lives, lovers, husbands, jobs, whatever, and old antiquated ideas of “honour” and virginity, of patriarchy, need to stop. Ayesha could be many women, and her story, which is also Kamil’s story, of love overcoming horror, is powerful, moving and deserves a huge audience.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

‘Val looked around. The baby appeared to be all on its own. There was no sign of a mother. No sign of anyone.

Val didn’t think about it. She didn’t even break her stride. She kicked the brake off the pram and pushed it as if she did it every day.’

Val, a widow living in Weston-super-Mare, spends lonely evenings dressing up as the movie star Elizabeth Taylor. It seems to be a way of coping with the loss and sadness she has experienced in her life. One day, when Val sees a pram left unattended on the seafront, on a whim she kicks off the brake and walks away with it…

Set in the present and the 1970s, Becoming Liz Taylor is a vivid and touching depiction of love, loss and bereavement – thought-provoking, moving fiction for fans of Rachel Joyce, Emma Healey and Ruth Hogan.

Elizabeth Delo trained as a teacher and has worked in schools in London, Birmingham, Paris and Somerset. After writing fiction in her spare time for many years, Elizabeth took a break from teaching to do a master’s degree in creative writing at Bath Spa University, graduating with Distinction. She runs creative writing classes and has worked as a freelance editor. She lives in Somerset with her husband and has three children.

My thoughts: still grieving her losses, Val Hinsby finds release by dressing up as her idol, Elizabeth Taylor. She does this in the privacy of her own home, knowing that it’s not easily explained. But even in her every day life she dresses with a touch of glamour in full skirts and carefully styled hair.

Walking home from the hairdresser, she sees a pram apparently unattended. And she takes it. There’s a little boy inside, and Val pretends he’s hers. Setting off on a madcap road trip first to Wales, she’s on the run and the whole country’s looking for her.

I felt sorry for Val, she’s suffered some terrible grief, and not dealt with it very well. She doesn’t seem to have much support or any friends, both in the past and in the present. No family around, no one to suggest at any point she get help. The same for her son Rafe, whose story is interwoven with hers in alternating chapters. It’s rather sad, two lives forever altered, two people who can’t connect.

Bits of the book are blackly comic, the B&B in Wales especially, poor sweet Howard, dreaming of a happy life, birdwatching and eating his dinner every night with Val and her “grandson”. But even he’s rather tragic, sad and alone. No one in this book is happy and they’re all so disconnected.

Although there is a little note of hope for Val and Rafe at the end, even if it isn’t conventional, perhaps they can rebuild their relationship, get some help with their past, learn to move on in some way. Who knows. A moving, haunting tale of grief, tragedy and delusion.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.