Fair Trade Heroin

by Rachael McGill

In the mid 1990s, with the Taliban poised to take over Afghanistan, young NGO worker Gwen is posted in a remote mountain village. Foreign NGOs begin to recall their workers, fearing for their safety, but Gwen refuses to leave. She’s full of ideas to empower the women and bring new income to her impoverished community. When she meets and falls for the opium trafficker Syed, she begins to look on the cultivation of poppy in a new light. Together they formulate a plan.

Fifteen years later, Gwen is working for a charity helping migrants in the UK. Her teenage daughter Nadia has never met her Afghan father and is frustrated by life with her opinionated mother. When Gwen’s past catches up with her, mother and daughter must negotiate the clash of two worlds.

'Sublime in its rawness, elegant in its outrage and compassionate in its fury.' Ece Temelkuran, Author of The Time of Mute Swans

255 pages, Paperback

Published May 24, 2022

Reviews

[Carla Luis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that really catches you!
This book has been a lovely surprise: very well written, in an elegant and very witty writing.
The setting is a mix and you will never get bored. From England to Afghanistan (no spoilers) nothing ever is flat. So I got really caught and it was a pleasure to read. Full of details, vibrant descriptions, suspense and rich characters really add to the mix. I'd definitely recommend it!

[Jethro Soutar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! A cracking read, grips you from the first page. There are two timelines that bounce off each other nicely. The Afghanistan scenes are filmic and full of local colour and the UK ones are acutely observed, often funny but sometimes bittersweet. There are lots of thought-provoking themes - I'm going to suggest it for my book group - often involving contrasts, between different countries, cultures, generations, opportunities. All in all, a thoroughly rewarding read.

[Mariella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fast moving and well-written story, set partly in Afghanistan, partly in London. It explores what can happen to a person in an alien culture from different angles and looks at different kinds of love - infatuation, slow-growing romance and the relationship between a mother and a daughter who has never met her father. It is full of ideas and emotion, but is funny too. I found the characters believable and cared what happened to them.

[Tara Janes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I plucked Fair Trade Heroin from a charity shop bookshelf on a whim and was pleasantly surprised by it. The main characters felt real and likeable and I thought the scene-setting was really strong.

I enjoyed the development of Gwen and Syed’s storyline, which led us to make our own judgements on him at the end.

The mother-daughter relationship in London a relatable contrast to the unknown (to me) setting of Afghanistan.

Overall an easy read, beautifully written and I will be recommending it to pals

[Suze McCullagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Rice thought he was shaping the world. Gwen saw herself running along behind it, trying to gather up important pieces as they fell off”

McGill has a way of drawing a character’s quirky personality with a clever use of language and simile. From the struggles of trying to raise a teenager in the modern world to the attempts to make change in war-torn countries, McGill’s book elicits empathy from the reader. A great first novel.

[Michael Langan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant merging of the personal and the political… engaging, affecting, expertly written and with a skilful weaving together of intergenerational stories - packed with great characters and sparky dialogue.