Good Intentions by Kasim Ali

Johanna Thomas-Corr says in Sunday Times.

Nur, a 25-year-old online journalist from Birmingham who suffers from frequent panic attacks, has been with Yasmina for four years. But he still hasn’t told his Pakistani parents about the relationship: Yasmina’s family is Sudanese, and Nur has never gotten over “his mother’s disgust when she saw him hanging out with a girl.” black girls at school”.

Ostensibly a “deep romance” about the barriers that stand in the way of two young lovers, Good intentions gradually reveals itself as a deeper novel – about how the obsession with vulnerability can “make you forget your responsibilities to others”.

Siobhan Murphy said: “Ali’s characters are ‘well drawn’, and ‘what a tonic’ to have a book on race in the UK. Time. Unfortunately, however, the unnecessarily complex structure requires a lot of “between points on the timeline” – and this, alas, makes the novel rather “confusing”.

4th Estate 352pp £14.99; Bookstore Week £11.99

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