Playing Games

(Paperback)

Available Formats

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The remarkable debut novel from critically acclaimed writer Huma Qureshi: a poignant story of art and sisterhood, family, marriage and betrayal

'The frame contains an old photo from when they were girls, in matching dresses their mother bought them . . . when Hana visits Mira, she pulls a face at the picture, asks Mira why she has kept it.'

Hana and Mira are sisters. They are each other's only family. They are very different.

Hana wants a perfect life. She's a rising star in her legal field. Her wardrobe is as elegant as her north London home. Her friends are having their second children and she is ready to be a mother. But Samir is hesitating, and Hana feels like time is running out.

Mira wants a creative life. She's subletting from a noisy flatmate and her cafe job drains her energy. She has always dreamed of being a playwright but she can never finish anything, and Hana's dismissal of her artistic ambitions wears away at her.

One night, after dinner, Mira overhears a fight between Hana and Samir: an exchange that rings in her mind and finds it way into a new script. In her tender and insightful debut novel, Huma Qureshi asks what sisters can borrow from each other and what a strained but loving relationship can withstand.

Reviews

Praise for Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love
A beautiful short-story collection . . . heartbreaking and hopeful * Red *
Qureshi's stories keenly identify the everyday tragedies of feeling profoundly unknown or unheard, of holding secrets and misunderstandings . . . These tales vividly capture the experience of feeling constrained by family expectations, but also of not quite fitting the norms of British culture either * Observer *
A luscious debut . . Qureshi is a dab hand at yanking the rug out from under the reader. Her immersive, poignant stories - written mostly in understated prose - often have a sting in the tale . . I fell for this lyrical, moving collection and the woozy intensity that infuses many of its stories. Qureshi creates gripping plotlines and vividly drawn characters and - most importantly - she is a writer with something to say. * i *
[An] impressive debut collection * Sunday Times *

Author Bio

Huma Qureshi is an award-winning writer, and former Observer and Guardian reporter. Her memoir How We Met: A Memoir of Love and Other Misadventures was published in January 2021 by Elliott & Thompson, to critical acclaim, chosen by Stylist as one of 2021's best non-fiction. She is the winner of the 2020 Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize. She is now writing her first novel, an enchanting story about family, belonging and identity. She lives in London.