Life, Love And Assimilation

by Kia Abdullah

This volume is a raw and unpretentious account of the battles faced by Kieran Ali, an Asian girl growing up in London. It tackles drug addiction, gender inequality, arranged marriage and religion but is ultimately a story about the love and freedom that is seldom afforded to young Asian women living between two cultures.

Genres: Fiction

172 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 2006

About the author

Kia Abdullah is a bestselling author and travel writer. Her novels include Take It Back (a Guardian and Telegraph thriller of the year), Truth Be Told (shortlisted for a Diverse Book Award), Next Of Kin (longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award) and Those People Next Door (a Times Bestseller and Waterstones Thriller of the Month). Her new novel, What Happens in the Dark, is out now.

Kia has won a Diverse Book Award (2022) and a JB Priestley Award for Writers of Promise (2020), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph and the BBC. She is also the founder of Asian Booklist, a nonprofit that advocates for diversity in publishing.

Website: kiaabdullah.com
Twitter: @kiaabdullah
Instagram: @kiaabdullah
TikTok: @kiawriter

Reviews

[Resident Optimist · Rating 4 out of 5]

This killed my mood, majorly. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, on the contrary, it was very good.

But it's one of those books that leave you thinking. It made me wonder what I'd do in the situation, or if someone I cared about was in that situation. And the worst thing I came to realise was that I had no idea what I would do, if anything.

This story was about a Bengali girl, Keiran growing up in East London's Tower Hamlets and her everyday struggles. It's about her love story, and how sometimes not everything ends happily. It's about family problems and cracks in a family that can't be seen from the outside, but can be felt from the inside.

A truly inspirational story about a girl who just wanted to be happy.

[Sayeda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it, i really connected to the book as a Bengali i understand who she feels about freedom
and the ending took me by surprise which made me love the book even more.

[Redwan Safi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book. I have to say it is definitely concise and well written. I would definitely recommend it to others.