we think books
“International politics in the mid-1960s was the domain of dreamers (…) Located at the crossroads between Central and South Asia, Afghanistan was not isolated from the winds of changes”. It is difficult to tell Afghanistan’s character without falling into stereotypes or enforced myths. Night Letters, which takes the name from threatening letters still nailed across…
As I write this review, I am watching a video on twitter released by the Turkish government of Greek coast guards trying to push away refugees in a rubber boat. You can see in the faces of these suffering human beings; their intense anguish at being pushed with poles and having warning shots fired close…
From almost the very beginning of this incredibly insightful book into the political meanings of the hijab/niqab (condensed into veil for the purposes of ease), we are told by Dr Sahar Ghumkhor: “I refuse to answer the question.” [p.viii] What is the question she is refusing to answer? The one that is perhaps most obviously…
There is something that does not sit right in the day to day of our lives. Something that nags in the choices that we make and the lives that we live, whether it is in the identities that we hold on to, money we earn, the architecture of the buildings we inhabit, the food we…
There is nothing banterish about this collection of poems by Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan. In itself, the evocation of ‘banter’ in the title of her debut solo book conceals the forensic and incisive social commentary that we are treated to throughout each poem – perhaps speaking to how this young poet sees her own early progression in…
The UK stage premiere of Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is a Northern Stage and Birmingham Repertory Theatre co-production. Khaled Hosseini’s novel has been adapted for the stage by Ursula Rani Sarma, and the play is directed by Roxana Silbert. Sadia Habib had the pleasure of hearing from two of the cast…
On Christmas Eve in 2015, the New York Times published a letter from the Philosopher George Yancy to White America. ‘Dear White America’ was a gift, Yancy argued. He asked his readers ‘to listen with love, a sort of love that demands that you look at parts of yourself that might cause pain and terror’….
There is always something a little terrifying about an ‘insider’ writing about your community for a wider public audience. It’s not an easy thing to do, particularly when the very idea of ‘community’ means many things and is often hotly contested ground. Hussein Kesvani’s ‘follow me, akhi: the online world of british muslims’ largely manages…
The following recommendations are aimed at a wide audience. I have considered Muslims and people of other faiths or none, and that people are in different places in their relationships with Islam. With that said, please take from the list what you believe is of interest and benefit and leave what you like. Insha’Allah, the…
“We do not underestimate the enormity of such a task, but, motivated by love, we have no option but to struggle. We struggle for you, our loved ones. We struggle for a future we do not yet see, and for those we do not yet know. We struggle with urgency and purpose, knowing that, as…
“There is a violence in undoing someone’s words and reconstituting them in a vocabulary foreign to them, a vocabulary of your own choosing. There is a violence, too, in the way you are—for long moments—annihilated by the other; undone in return. Neither the translator nor the text emerges from the act unscathed.” [Lina Mounzer –…
By Dr. Fahid Qurashi This is one of the best books I have read on the 2007 financial crash. It details the build-up and the aftermath of the crash, and the key movers (individual and institutional). The book does a great job of conveying the complexity of the industry, so that the reader can understand…
A few months ago, I chewed through Elena Ferrante’s four Neapolitan novels in less than two weeks. I had heard a great deal about her writing and thought I would give the first book a go. What emerged, was a complete engrossing in a world that, across an entire generation, was told from the perspective…
Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race had been on my radar for a while, but for various reasons, I did not get around to reading it as soon as I should have. With its widely-held critical acclaim and as the winner of various awards, the book had long come…
