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IN Urdu balti refers to a large receptacle for carrying water. You would no sooner cook with one than with a bucket. A Birmingham Balti magnate explains to Sardar, "It all started as a joke." Yet an Oxford dictionary now contains an entry for "Baltistan" in the Himalayas. This nonsense
typifies the miscomprehensions that persist between Asian Britons and
the indigenous population. In a book as fascinating as it is
clear-eyed, Sardar tackles the twin themes of his family, who arrived
as emigrants from Pakistan in the 1950s, and the awkward relationship
between Britain and its former Indian empire. Sardar’s own story,
including his successful arranged marriage, brings humour and
tenderness to this engaging book. — Christopher Hirst The Way Things Look
to Me
At 23, Asif Declan Kalil Murhphy is not the man he wanted to be. His mother’s unexpected death has forced him back home to look after his sister, Yasmin, a young woman with Asperger’s. Everyone tells Asif
he’s a good boy, but inside he’s eaten up by self-hatred. Yasmin’s
condition, and her exacting need for routine, has dominated Asif’s
childhood and that of his other sister Lila. Yasmin herself has no
idea of the resenment she has caused, but senses bad feeling. A tender
hearted novel that examines how siblings club together to keep one
another afloat. A writer with few pretentions, Farooki is happy to
tell it how it is. — Emma Hagestadt — By arrangement with
The Independent
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Balti
Britain
In
her debut novel Bitter Sweets, Lahore-born, London-raised Roopa
Farooki wrote an immigrant story that shunned the usual cliches. Here
she takes another sideways look at a family in crisis.