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This Green and Pleasant Land

Winner of The Diverse Book Awards 2020

Ayisha Malik author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Zaffre

Published:1st Oct '20

Should be back in stock very soon

This Green and Pleasant Land cover

LONGLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS 2020

Timely,
humorous and deeply moving. This is the absolute standout new novel by acclaimed author (and 2018 Asian Woman of Achievement nominee) Ayisha Malik

Timely, humorous and deeply moving. This is the absolute standout new novel by acclaimed author (and 2018 Asian Woman of Achievement nominee) Ayisha Malik.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS
'Tender, challenging and as warm as it was razor-sharp' Beth O'Leary

'If you've read Joanna Cannon I think you'll love this' Simon Savidge
'A sublimely witty and touching story' Jonathan Coe


The standout new novel by acclaimed author Ayisha Malik - perfect for fans of David Nicholls and Candice Carty-Williams
.

In the sleepy village of Babel's End, trouble is brewing.

Bilal Hasham is having a mid-life crisis. His mother has just died, and he finds peace lying in a grave he's dug in the garden. His elderly Auntie Rukhsana has come to live with him, and forged an unlikely friendship with village busybody, Shelley Hawking. His wife Mariam is distant and distracted, and his stepson Haaris is spending more time with his real father.

Bilal's mother's dying wish was to build a mosque in Babel's End, but when Shelley gets wind of this scheme, she unleashes the forces of hell. Will Bilal's mosque project bring his family and his beloved village together again, or drive them apart?

Warm, wise and laugh-out-loud funny, This Green and Pleasant Land is a life-affirming look at love, faith and the meaning of home.

I absolutely devoured this book . . . It was tender, challenging and as warm as it was razor-sharp - I was in awe of Ayisha's ability to cut you to the core in one paragraph and make you laugh in the next. Every single character was fascinating, and so many of them stayed with me after finishing the book that I was basically carrying the whole village round in my head for a while . . . * Beth O'Leary, author of The Flatshare *
Beautifully written. If you've read Joanna Cannon I think you'll love this * Simon Savidge *
A gorgeous, funny, smart, uplifting story about seeking unity during times of division. Wish I could prescribe it to the country * Daisy Buchanan *
I have to say it's not often I read a book as thoughtful, funny, excellently written and important as this one. I've always been a fan of Ayisha's writing, but this book takes her work to another level. I really hope this becomes a huge hit, because it deserves to be read by everyone. Witty, insightful, and shot through with pathos, Ayisha Malik's This Green and Pleasant Land is the prescient tale of Bilal, a middle-class British muslim and his quest to fulfil his mother's dying wish that he builds a mosque in the sleepy English village of Babbel's End. This book is laugh out loud funny, but is so much more than that. It challenges out preconceptions and our prejudices about what it means to be British in today's world. As such, in these turbulent times, it is also an important book. It's Malik's best work to date, and more importantly, for me, it's the standout book of the year * Abir Mukherjee *
A modern comedy of manners ... Malik's great gift is to present seemingly insoluble issues of faith and intolerance in a light, accessible manner * Guardian *
Malik was another of last year's standout discoveries for me . . . she writes about the Muslim experience of living in England from the inside, and in this novel constructs a sublimely witty and touching story . . . It has an Ealing comedy vibe to it, but is of course utterly contemporary, offering many clear-eyed perspectives on the fractured, mutually-uncomprehending country we have somehow managed to create for ourselves * Jonathan Coe *
Beautifully written. If you've read Joanna Cannon I think you'll love this. * Simon Savidge, (Savidge Reads) *
Warm, funny and thought-provoking...A joy to read. * The People's Friend *

ISBN: 9781785764509

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 27mm

Weight: 319g

464 pages