Salutation Road

by Salma Ibrahim

‘We may look the same, but I am not you . . . We share nothing but a reflection in the mirror’

Salutation Road by Salma Ibrahim is a beautifully told literary debut about the everyday struggles of immigration, love and letting go of a past that never really existed. For fans of Nadifa Mohamed and Mohsin Hamid.

Twenty-three-year-old Sirad Ali is a woman adrift. Abandoned by her father in childhood, doing her best to support her mother and younger brother in their small flat in South London, she can’t help but wonder if this is the life she really wants.

One morning, Sirad boards her bus to work and finds herself transported to an alternate timeline in present-day Mogadishu. Over the course of a single day, under the sweltering East African sun, Sirad must contend with a lost reality. There she encounters an almost unrecognizable version of her family and comes face to face with her double, Ubah – the woman she could have been, had her parents never fled to London during the Somali Civil War.

Back home in Greenwich, Sirad must go on with life, consumed by all she now knows. But then Ubah mysteriously appears in London, and Sirad begins to understand that nothing will ever be the same again . . .

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Somalia

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 13, 2025

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*. I needed that. It was an easy read. I had to suspend my belief a lot of the times when it comes to the fantastical elements but the heart and core of the book, its messages were great. Immigration is such a tough topic especially with the feelings of guilt because we live a completely different life, but it is what it is, you need to pour into yourself first.

[zulaykha · Rating 5 out of 5]

when i closed this book after finishing it all i could think was wow. the story was so eloquently told and i loved it so much it rendered me speechless. reading about characters that i share a homeland with and yearn for the same things with made me not want to stop reading. i’m honoured to be one of the first people to read it before it releases, thank you salma for the arc.

[Azrah · Rating 4 out of 5]

[This review can also be found on my BLOG]

**Thank you to Sarah at Future Worlds Prize for gifting me a copy of this book **

CW: abandonment, displacement, grief, depression, death of a loved one, brief mentions of war, trafficking, domestic abuse, miscarriage/pregnancy and suicide
--

A little book that has left a big impact on my soul.

Salutation Road follows Sirad Ali, a young Somali Londoner who gets roped into a university experiment involving a bus trip that takes her to an alternative universe where she meets the version of herself and her family who never left Somalia. I was quite surprised that the trip itself was just a small part of the overall story but its purpose was to set into motion a much bigger exploration on the themes of grief and loneliness, displacement and belonging and finding yourself which Salma Ibrahim has done in such a moving way.

The overall vibe of this story reminded me of Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West quite a bit but also with how the speculative elements were quite loose and that much of the focus is on the individuals themselves, their emotions and relationships, I was also recalling Mike Chen’s books while reading so if you’re a fan of either of those authors then I can’t recommend this book to you enough.

Ibrahim’s writing has this quality to it that even when the segments of time and interactions go by in the narrative within the blink of an eye, these characters and their sentiments sink deeply into your thoughts both as you read and long after. Even when it came to the descriptions of London and Mogadishu, the former being a place as familiar to me as the back of my hand, I felt like I was experiencing them anew with how Ibrahim’s words brought them to life.

The immigrant experience is at the core of this book and I liked how Ibrahim didn’t shy away from pointing out how academia and the wider world so often bluntly see such lived experiences as little more than a study or statistic. There were also many elements of Somali culture as well as faith that were beautifully woven into the story.

I’ll admit I was worried at how the pacing was fast moving from the get go, thinking that it wouldn’t allow for enough of a connection between the characters or development of the protagonist but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The more I read the more I was drawn to Sirad and her soul searching. She was frustrating at times with how she went about dealing with the responsibilities that she was shouldering but it made her feel all the more human and a mirror image to anyone who has ever felt a little adrift with their lot in life.

Many of the supporting characters too left a lasting impression especially Maxine and there were some truly heartfelt moments of guidance given to Sirad that will stick with me for some time.

Not everything in the book feels resolved or answered fully by the end and some may not be a fan of the messiness of that however, I believe that it goes hand in hand with the overall message of how the outcomes of our own choices won’t always be known to us and that our destinies are determined by more than choices solely our own. I look forward to picking up what Ibrahim writes next!
Final Rating – 4/5 Stars

[Zainab Bint Younus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was... not what I expected it to be. With the premise of traveling across time/space in a secret project featuring buses, I was excited for something sci-fi-ish featuring Somali Muslim characters.

Instead, this was very much literary fiction - which I don't do too well with tbh (user problem, not a product problem).

Sirad is a London-raised Somali girl, and she seizes opportunity to board the secret bus to cross over into a Somalia where her parents had never left, where her father never abandoned her family, and where a different version of herself lives... just as restless as Sirad herself.

Even when she returns to London, Sirad never truly seems to know herself or what she's meant to do. When she has the chance to meet Ubah - her alternate self - again, Sirad must make a decision that will impact her sense of self forever.

[Bukola Akinyemi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Salutation Road
By Salma Ibrahim

“Nostalgia is the future telling the past that things will be OK, and the past rubbing up against it to say that they will never quite be the same.”

Oh I absolutely loved this book! I was glued to the pages right from the beginning and that cliff hanger at the end?? I just had to believe it went the way I wanted it to.

Twenty-three year old Sirad lives in Greenwich with her immigrant mum and brother, her father having abandoned them while she was a child.

Sirad boards a bus to Stratford for work one morning and ends up in Mogadishu, for a one day experience of an alternate timeline with her parents and her double as if they never left when she was five.

Salutation Road is not just a book, it’s a map of memory, loss, and belonging.

Themes of Identity, belonging, migration & displacement with an alternative reality/speculative element

“We may look the same, but I am not you . . . We share nothing but a reflection in the mirror.”

[Safiyya · Rating 3 out of 5]

an ambitious concept to use to explore immigration and survivor's (or "thriver's") guilt

[emi ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be an easy and enjoyable read with a clear, engaging plot. Some characters really stood out to me, and there were heartfelt moments I appreciated. However, I wished there had been more time spent in the alternate reality, and the open-ended conclusion left me wanting a bit more. It was a good read overall, but it didn’t fully satisfy me.

[EM · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the Somalinimo, it felt genuine and comforting. Sirad though? Selfish, self-centred, unbearable (bless her, but no). The whole alternative reality aspect left me with more questions than answers, but I just went with it and accepted it as part of the ride.

[Hanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book, i thought the author did a great job of evoking this feeling of melancholy throughout the book which links well with where we meet Sirad in her life, we meet her when shes unsure of what to do with her life, adrift and unmoored, fulfilling her responsibilities but not finding fulfilment.

The doppelgänger aspect of this was my favourite part, I think the author did a good job making them distinct people. They also have some core commonalities, both Sirad and Ubah yearn for something more in their lives but they react very differently to this feeling, it spurs Ubah into action whereas Sirad felt like she was floating along in life unsure where to direct herself. This aspect of the book raises that question about how much of you is your nature and how much of a person is the manner in which they were raised and the environment around them.

I did feel the 2 part structure works well in hindsight but the second half was a lot shorter than the first half. Given the huge changes that happened in Sirad's life it just meant so we didnt get to explore as much in that second half which was a little disappointing just because i thought there were some new characters and circumstances we didnt get to fully come to grips with.

I read this with a friend and I think my experience with this book was enhanced by discussing it. Overall really glad I read this and Im looking forward to future works from this author.

[Freya Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adored the premise of this book, it is a very different and interesting concept and allows for a lot of reflection upon identity and immigration. It is clear Ibrahim is a very talented author and this a great debut!
I really, really enjoyed this but fell just short of 5 stars due to feeling like I wanted more and knew that the premise of this novel had so much potential but just didn't quite blow my socks off. All in all a great read just mot quite a 5 🌟

[soumia˚❀༉ · Rating 5 out of 5]

My heart was in my stomach finishing this book. Things left unsaid were also completely understood, and I loved how this story was written. What a wonderful and moving book - something that will leave me thinking about for a long time for sure.

[Jo Wills · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an amazing take on identity, belonging, and the weight of choices we never got to make.

The writing blends reality with speculative fiction so well creating a world that feels both familiar and unsettling. The themes of immigration, home, and self-discovery are written so beautifully

[Janine Carden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had thought this would be a sliding doors type of book of what her life could have been like and the comparison of two woman the same age but growing up in different places.

Sirad’s journey between London and Mogadishu, her meeting with Ubah, her alternate self, was a great concept. However, I felt more could have been made of both settings. London and Mogadishu felt somewhat underdeveloped, I wanted a deeper sense of place and atmosphere, more exploration of identity and displacement, I felt it could have gone further in these areas.

A lot of the different plot lines seemed unfinished. Despite this, Salutation Road remains a thought-provoking read, shedding light on the complexities of immigration, personal identity and the concept of alternate realities. It’s a promising debut that considers choice and destiny.

I’d give Salutation Road by H. Salma Ibrahim three stars and would like to thank The Curious Cat Bookshop allowing me to read this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Ruqayyah Nabage · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a book club pick. I hadn't finished in time and they all gave bad ratings. I somehow thought it'd be a good idea to finish it. Joke was on me🫠.

The things that bothered me the most about the book are the following:

1. There were a LOT of plot holes. Let’s take the technology being used for example. We never got an explanation of how it worked or how the others crossed over unauthorised when she showed that there was “so much security”. My point being if you want to write magical realism do it PROPERLY.

2. The ending. Dear God the ending was soooo bad. NOTHING ruins a book like an ending. Plot holes and a lot of other book sins can be forgiven if at the very least the ending is acceptable. It honestly felt like she ran out of ideas and what to say and she was just like “yeah let me hurry up and finish this off”. I also felt like she wanted to have that “mysterious unfinished business” type of ending but it was so terribly executed it flopped.

It’s funny, I read it since April and I’m writing this review in October and all of these annoyances are coming up fresh in my mind.

[gannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

thank you @bookbreakuk and pan macmillan for this proof!

ugh i wanted to love this one sooo bad. it annoys me when i find a read that has such potential !!! and yet I feel like it doesn't deliver on it.

I had high expectations to be fair, I mean immigrant muslim representation = relatable. Me. Someone obsessed with the idea of alternative lives and if we stayed vs. if we left realities. Also me. Someone nostalgic and sentimental. Me.

In Salutation Road, we follow Sirad. A Somali Londoner. She and her family haven't had an easy life, and, amidst her struggle to make ends meet, Sirad wonders of the past. She wonders about her identity and how much of it was shaped by leaving. She wonders of the things she gained and the things she lost. That is when she gets the chance to experience her other reality, the one where she stayed, through a secret project of time travel.

The time travel idea was so smart, it's fresh and interesting. It's a chance that would both give me a crisis and heal my crisis if it existed. I was excited to see Sirad's experience. But. I was disappointed that the part where she crosses over to the other reality is so short, we barely get a few pages of when she goes to Somalia to see her double. It was all too quick and it lacked the introspection and closure and emotion I thought I was going to get. A good half of the novel is just Sirad ruminating on this day and on the chaotic feelings in her rather than the actual experience. This i think stretched out the novel but took out the interest factor, made it mild and a little boring.

I thought it was going to pick up when the plot of the "time travel project gone wrong" was introduced but then again it was messy, rushed, and not quite understood or felt. It seemed like the author was just trying to add any unnecessary action into the plot. Part two of the book completely switches the narrative to another era and there's more chaos that is left unresolved and with no closure to the characters or readers. It left me thinking what the point here was really....

The alternative reality time-travel plotline as so strayed away from, Sirad's inner conflict really got no resolution, and the multiple switches in the narrative lost me. All i kept thinking was "this could've been such a good book" or "this could've made me feel so much" but unfortunately it didn't! The author had a great idea to explore important themes in an interesting way but the execution really went wrong in my opinion. I related to Sirad's feelings but everything eventually fizzled out with the muddled plot, making the story less deep and evocative.

I do think Salma Ibrahim rites beautifully, creates complex characters, and has captivating ideas so I hope to see some future work that is structured better because i think there's potential

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘Everybody wants to get on the bus. I was told that it was all part of this technology that somehow tracks who would be best suited to making these journeys. I don’t know how they get that information, if that’s what you’re interested in. At first, the buses only went one way, taking people from London to Mogadishu and not back. It was intended to be this short-term project by some university academics to connect people with their roots for a day and see if they felt grateful for being here.’ She scoffs. ‘But then it backfired on them. It was only a matter of time before word spread about the bus route. An underground company was set up to smuggle people over here and put them to work as cheap labour in certain places.’

The author of this debut novel is a Somali South Londoner (which juxtaposition is key to the novel). Admirably as well as her day job marketing for UNICEF (the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) she also founded and runs a literary organisation Literary Natives (https://www.litnatives.com/) which “provides daily inspiration, support and community for BIPOC writers all around the world”.

The blurb for the novel references Moshin Hamid and the comparison is apt as like “Exit West” it is a tale of migration which makes use of a fantastical device.

The narrator of the novel Sirad, who is twenty three at its beginning in August 2016 (between the Brexit referendum and the US election), lives in a small flat in Greenwich South London with her mother (who is suffering from depression) and her younger brother (meant to be studying his GCSEs but starting to go off the rails).

Sirad and her family fled Somalia when she was five, but later in her childhood in the UK where they immigrated, her father left home and returned to Somalia to have another family. Sirad is somewhat adrift – allowing the expectations of others to influence her own she told herself she was not clever enough for University and now works in a zero-hours advertising job. As the book opens her mother loses her hospital job putting the family finances under immense strain.

She then receives a bizarre letter from a project called UNCLASSIFIED from a group of researchers into the topics of technology and migration at an unnamed London university, offering her the chance to enter a “parallel realm” for a day to “experience [her] roots in an alternate lifetime”.

Assuming the letter is a prank she nevertheless accidentally ends up on what she thinks is a rail replacement bus service but where the driver announces “The first stop is Mogadishu” and existing what she thinks is the Blackwall Tunnel she does indeed find herself in the capital city of her home country – for a trip of less than a day which she spends with what is effectively a shadow/alternate family as if her parents had never left Somalia, spending much of the time with her double Ubah (who is desperate to escape Somalia).

Returning to her life in London, Sirad is at a loss to what to do with her experience, googling to see if she can find any references to the project she becomes over time aware of rumours of undocumented Somail migrants suddenly appearing in London and staying at a nearby hostel – and to her surprise this includes Ubah who with others appear to confirm her suspicions that the migrants are making unofficial use of the bus route (before Ubah goes underground after being the apparent victim of some predatory activities).

Just after Sirad, encouraged by a older librarian who has effectively mentored her for years, gets a permanent job at a magazine, she is again contacted by UNCLASSIFIED – this time for a debrief on her experience and how it impacted her. After that meeting dissolves in chaos – most of the participants as unsure as Sirad of what to make of their potentially life-changing experience after which they were simply abandoned – Sirad is offered money (money she uses to clear her family’s mounting debts) to give information on her interactions with Ubah.

[As an aside – and hopefully to be corrected in the final version – the ARC I read had a seeming continuity error – Sirad referring to an offer of money which is not actually in the text of the letter we read]

The writing is relatively simple and uses a present tense and I had to keep reminding myself (even as I wrote the review) that the protagonist is twenty-three as her actions read more like those of a teenager to me and the novel more like a young-adult novel. I was also far from clear where the narrative was heading or how the author was really using the idea of the bus journey.

Part II of the novel switches quickly to past tense to look back on a 6 years of Sirad’s life (her mother returns to Somalia, her brother turns himself around and becomes a software engineer post A Levels and University and she progresses at work) – before returning to the present tense with Sirad twenty-nine and a few months later married.

[Again I felt there was an anomaly in the text between two different descriptions of when Sirad met her husband – albeit this was less of an issue]

Her initially ideal marriage grows some tensions over time from Sirad’s reluctance to give in to pressures to have a family, but suffers a more serious rupture when she becomes suspicious that her husband too has some form of involvement in the UNCLASSIFIED project and a return bus trip to Somalia and meeting with Ubah only leaves Sirad (and unfortunately for me the novel) more adrift.

I have to say that while I think the idea of the parallel life bus and the effective use of a “Sliding Doors” approach to thinking about migration is an interesting one – for example showing the parallels between the lives of (relatively) successful migrants and those left behind in failing states, the idea of how small choices (here when to leave) have huge future consequences, even the way in which well intentioned Western attempts to aid migrants get taken over by selfish agendas - I just did not think it was really very well executed here, or at least executed in a way I enjoyed.

And so overall this was not really a successful read for me.

‘We were running our research project as part of the Centre of Migration Studies at the university, which I can’t name. We’ve carried out decades of research into the significance of time and space in migration and worked with some incredible minds, all of whom will remain anonymous. It started off as a sort of fascination with migrant people’s perceptions and beliefs about time and space, and how this adds to their experience of belonging, loss, grief, love and feelings about the future. Then we took our research to new heights and, long story short, we discovered a way to jump between timelines and gain some kind of control over this variable.’

My thanks to Pan Macmillan, Mantle for an ARC via NetGalley

[amally · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished Salutation Road yesterday and I honestly haven’t stopped thinking about it. I don’t usually read speculative fiction, but this one really drew me in. The story was so original and thought-provoking, and it was written with such care.

It follows Sirad, a 23-year-old in South London, who ends up in an alternate version of Mogadishu—one where she meets a version of herself who never left Somalia. That premise alone had me hooked, and the way Salma Ibrahim explores identity, migration, and the idea of “what could’ve been” was so moving.

The book touches on so many important themes—displacement, belonging, the complexity of family relationships, and the emotional weight of living between two cultures. There’s also a quiet but powerful reflection on how the people around us like Maxine the librarian can offer unexpected moments of connection and care.

I really appreciated Sirad her perspective, her quiet strength, and the way she was navigating everything felt so real. And Maxine’s relationship with her was one of my favourite parts of the book it was soft, grounding, and stayed with me!

The only thing I would’ve liked was a slightly more tied-up ending—it felt quite open, and I was craving a little more resolution. But that didn’t take away from how much I enjoyed the experience.

This was such a brilliant debut, and I’m genuinely excited to see what Salma Ibrahim writes next ✨

[Sarah H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book in my local library on the "new shelf". I like to support muslim writers and the blub intrigued me.
Theme is trauma. Weak storyline to show trauma. The muslamicness is mentioned maybe twice, about salah and hijab. Other than that, islam isn't portrayed inside the book, which is a shame. I feel the character could have pulled so much strength from Islam. The 2nd half of the book is the same monotone moan about trauma and being scared of trauma. Maybe its that i just couldnt connect with the character that gave me that impression. I really do feel for girls from similar backgrounds if that is what they really have to live with. I felt the author, with her skill in delivering words, will deliver a better book in the future. Inshallah.

[Readiverse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heartfelt and courageous meditation on the ‘what if we stayed’ question and yearning that haunts many immigrant experiences.

When 23 year old Sirad receives a mysterious letter inviting her to take part in a university study geared towards immigrant communities, she embarks on a journey that will change her life forever. Living a miserable existence in the wake of Brexit, she is more aware than ever of the connotations of the word ‘immigrant’. Her very existence is associated with a disease-like status that society is determined to flush out. To exacerbate the situation, her mother suddenly becomes jobless having exhausted all available sick days for her mental health issues. Her younger brother too is a constant source of worry, having recently taken to staying out late and associating with questionable company.

The study turns out to entail a pioneering form of technology that takes Sirad to a parallel universe, one in which her parents never left Somalia. The alternative worlds concept conveys the devastation and yearning that characterises the immigrant experience in a way that stays with you long after the book.

The narrative is replete with melancholic allusions to the immigrant experience, most notably the material struggle which first presents itself as Hooyo’s reluctance to part with her ‘…frayed old…’ ‘…dressing gown…’.. The deprivation and sadness is hard to swallow at times but the characters are imbued with a dignity that surpasses their conditions. Sirad in particular is immediately likeable, a heroine with a good heart but still deeply flawed.

The execution of otherworldly concepts is always tricky but Ibrahim creates the sense of a world beyond the tangible from the very beginning of the book, priming the reader for what is to come later on.

The writing too was engaging and atmospheric. I found the first chapter particularly compelling where physical places are beautifully entwined with contemplations about the passage of time:

‘Nostalgia is the future telling the past that things will be ok, and the past rubbing up against it to say that they will never quite be the same.’

In terms of plot, I thought there would be a more engagement with the concept of the otherworld throughout. However, there is a pause where other aspects of Sirad’s life dominate the narrative. This disconnection from the focus on the other world in the early part of the book was unexpected and felt anticlimactic. However, I was so invested in Sirad by this point, I was still engaged. Moreover, the pause in engagement with the other world and the lack of expectation around its return, made the turn of events towards the end of the book even more poignant.

All in all, I think this book is a highly commendable debut novel. The concept though daring was masterfully executed and brilliantly held up by a well written central character.

[Ema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salutation Road delivers a poignant and thought-provoking tale that straddles the line between reality and imagination, identity and displacement.

Sirad Ali is a quiet, introspective girl living in Greenwich, a place that feels more like a cage than a home. Her world is defined by the expectations of others, and her identity is shaped by the shadows of perception. Memories of her birthplace, Somalia, have blurred into abstraction—distant echoes of a life she barely recalls. With the burden of family responsibility weighing heavily on her shoulders, Sirad quietly drifts through a life that doesn’t quite feel like her own.

Then, something extraordinary happens.

Sirad receives an invitation to participate in a mysterious project called Unclassified—a one-day journey into a parallel realm designed for third-culture youth. The aim is to reconnect with their ancestral pasts in an alternate lifetime. What begins as a suspected prank soon morphs into an uncanny reality as she boards a bus from London to Mogadishu.

There, in Somalia, both familiar and utterly foreign, Sirad confronts an alternate version of herself—Ubah. This mirror image is bold, restless, and rebellious, married yet yearning for freedom. Through Ubah, Sirad is forced to face the fragments of a life she left behind, in a city scarred by war but still pulsing with untold stories.

As the two girls’ lives intertwine, Unclassified becomes more than just a journey—it’s a meditation on identity, memory, and the invisible threads that bind us to the past and future. When Ubah chooses to escape her life and board the same bus Sirad arrived on, the consequences ripple across realities, leaving both girls changed in profound, haunting ways.

Despite a few minor narrative loopholes, it is a bold, imaginative debut. The author has crafted rich, multidimensional characters and infused the novel with emotional resonance. It’s a story that lingers long after the final page—one that dares to ask what it means to belong and whether true freedom lies in staying or in the courage to leave.

[Fleeno · Rating 5 out of 5]

One morning Sirad catches the bus to work and instead finds herself in Mogadishu, in an alternative timeline. There she meets her parents who are still happily married and her double, Ubah who is living a very different life to Sirad. Before she can understand what ahe is experiencing Sirad is back on the bus and in London, struggling to reconcile her experience. But when Ubah runs away from her husband to London Sirad has to face difficult choices which threaten her version of reality.
This book is not quite what I thought it was going to be but nonetheless it was brilliant. This is a great example of speculative fiction being used to explain what it means to be a migrant, to be young, to live in a world that is both more connected yet more isolated than ever. Sirad is bound to her family, the only worker person caring for her mother and brother, both older than her years and desperate not to grow up. She is tortured by the memory of Ubah and her time in Mogadishu but has no way to communicate what she experienced. The story is set in 2017, just post brexit. In the background there is a constant reminder of the hostility towards foreigners, reminders of the narrative of an influx of migrants taking over Britain, and the rejection felt by many at the time. There's news of gang violence and stabbings, communities turning on each other and a feeling of isolation. I thought I was going to read a sci-fi book about alternate realities but instead I got so much more.

[Ilwaad Yusuf · Rating 5 out of 5]

My experience reading Salutation Road can be summed up in two words, cathartic and hopeful. This book has managed to deconstruct my fears and comfort my soul.

23 year old Sirad Ali is a woman adrift. Abandoned by her father in childhood, doing her best to support her mother and younger brother in their small flat in South London, she can’t help but wonder if this is the life she really wants.

Sirad’s difficulties felt vivid and tangible. She is such a complex character who I rooted for but found frustrating at times. Though this frustration was quelled by the emphasis on Sirad’s humanity.

The speculative element added a lot of depth to the overall narrative. Also, Salma's prose is tender, intentional and necessary. Salma Ibrahim's inclusion of Somali culture felt very seamless and in my opinion, authentic.

As a Somali reader, I felt seen and inspired by Sirad reclaiming her agency. As an aspiring writer, I am in awe of Salma Ibrahim’s craft and triumph at delivering this speculative contemporary story as her debut novel.

I would absolutely recommend Salutation Road!

[Farah G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Salutation Road is a meditation on the paths we take in life and how the outcomes of certain decisions can be very different indeed depending on which fork in the road is chosen.

Sirad Ali's parents free the civil war in Somalia for the UK but her father does not stick around for the duration. Instead, Sirad finds herself living a life that she did not really choose, and perhaps would not have chosen, had the choice been hers. Who would she be if her family had stayed together, for example?

But this is more than just a "sliding doors" story of what might have happened to Sirad if her parents had remained in Mogadishu. It is about how we become who we become, and the things that are at the core of us.

An interesting literary fiction novel about identity, destiny, immigration and kinship it gets 3. 5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I try not to go into any book having a set out idea of what it could be about and sometimes I even don’t like reading the full blurb and my open minded approach only made this book more enjoyable.

I loved the science fiction element of the bus that takes sirad to an alternate reality where she discovers herself if her parents never fled from the Somali civil war but I feel that it slots into the bigger picture of the message of the book. What I got from Salutation Road is it is about the struggle with greif, loss, fear of change, society’s expectations and more. It was a real insight into the reality of the deep trauma from not feeling safe in the country you were born and the fear of losing everything again.

Very interested to read what Salma Ibrahim writes next.

[whatzoreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salutation Road took me on a speculative journey that left my mind asking questions long after I finished it. Gorgeous characters, I wanted to sit down with our FMC, drink peppermint tea, and chat through her experiences. She felt that real to me. Set in London the book follows a Somalian family as they struggle to belong in a post-Brexit Britain. Feeling a little lost and adrift in life, with limited opportunities and driven by a need to support her family, our FMC accepts a place on a top secret research project. She ends up taking a mysterious bus ride to her parallel existence in Mogadishu. Hers is a story splintered by immigration, about family, love, and letting go of a past that never existed. This was an incredible and emotional think piece that I gave 4.25 ⭐️

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advance copy to read in exchange for my honest review.

[Hana (myjourneywithbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love what-if stories that explore alternate timelines so I was obviously excited for Salutation Road. It's quite possible that I went into it with the wrong expectations because, where I expected a very happening story with an intricate plot, I was met with a meandering narrative that was largely character-based. Not that there's anything wrong with a character-based story; it's just that, in this case, I had been hoping for more about the alternate reality concept.

What stood out most to me about this book were the author's reflections on identity, immigration and belonging. Sirad's experience is meant to be representative of others in her position, feeling like they fit in neither here nor there. Though the first part of the book is the one that deals with the alternate reality, I found myself more interested in the latter half, which takes place some years later and focuses even further on Sirad's inner conflicts.

I think to some extent, the synopsis on the back of the book is misleading as it suggests (to me, at least) some sense of mystery with regards to the alternate timeline aspect, which it did not deliver on. At all.

Unrealised expectations aside, the book had its merits. Maybe not one of my top reads of the year but not bad.

[Halima Begum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book and it’s going to take me a while to unpack everything. I will be meeting the author at an event soon to debrief on the book. It’ll be nice to see what others thought of it. I liked how the author wrote the book. I was hooked. I got to go on a journey and see how life is like for a young adult who had a chance to meet another version of her in her home land. The issued face growing up as a person who migrated. The dual identities never really fitting. My parents are immigrants and they migrated from Bangladesh for a chance at a better life. Sometimes I take things for granted but reading this book has opened my eyes to a lot of the challenges that are faced on a daily. Underlined and annotated so many things!

[Jamad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Salutation Road is a debut novel that follows Sirad a 23 year old whose parents had fled to London during the Somali Civil War. She boards a bus and there is a Sliding Doors episode.

The book has been compared to Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, another migration story with a fantasy twist, but for me it doesn’t reach the same level of depth or resonance. The writing style, pacing, and character development felt more suited to a Young Adult audience, with less nuance than I had hoped for.

Overall, it was an okay read — not without merit, but it didn’t fully engage me.
Two stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[karla JR · Rating 5 out of 5]

My gratitude to Pan Macmillan | Mantle for the access to this ARC. I keep the migrations themes and stories close to my heart as someone who left her own country. You know q book is good when you spend couple of days processing it and trying to digest it. And this is what this book caused in me I love how the characters well so well written and their life, happiness and struggle affected us as readers. I like the sensibility the author create on the whole story and the plot. Such a memorable piece of speculated fiction that carry with a big power giving voice to many other stories

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I finished readings this book I felt peaceful and slightly emotional. It was beautiful, eloquent and full of incredible characters. Immigration is a big theme throughout this book and I really appreciated how Salma Ibrahim didn't shy away from some of the topics discussed. Sirad's family really struggled to find their place in post-Brexit Britain and they all had differing ways of coping. The bus aspect was so interesting and I can only imagine the confusion it would cause to the passengers. The imagery of Mogadishu was beautiful, I really felt transported on the bus with Sirad.
Sirad had to learn to let go of a past that was never really hers and I was just so glad she had Maxine to help her with this.