Mary > Recent Status Updates

An honour killing? If so, who is culpable? Just the adult family members or the extended Afghan community who refuse to relinquish an age-old belief system: that a family‘s name is inextricably linked with the ‘virtue’ of its female members.

So far, so good. I like the characters and am optimistic that Fi and Mason will navigate the transplant process successfully.

“They were all themselves, living in their own minds, just as Stephen now was living in his and dreading its own extinction, the great change beyond imagining, which nobody knew about for sure, no matter how strong their faith was, no matter how hard they prayed.”

While Maurice’s family waits collectively for "The News," they are trapped in their own individual prisons of fear.

Stories 1-4:these stories feel like a cold draft in an empty room. The most chilling realisation is how easily the structures we rely on—partners, documentation, legal status—can vanish. In Five Bridges and Sleep, the protagonists end up alone not because they are "bad" people, but because the weight of their past makes them too "heavy" for others to carry. Lots of abandoned characters!

Delighted to have my request for an advance copy accepted by Pan MacMillan today!