"Set in London in the eighties and early noughties, this immersive debut rings with authenticity and the emotional weight of a young woman’s journey to discover her late father."
Taking in two timeframes, Yasmin Cordery Khan’s Edgware Road is an engrossing debut that lays bare the ways we’re haunted by our pasts, and driven to pursue paths that may bring about our downfall.
On one level, Edgware Road tells the tragic story of a man desperate to give his family the best, so caught up in an unattainable dream of unimaginable wealth, that he loses everything that matters. At the same time, it explores long-lasting connections across time and continents. And all this against a backdrop of corrupt business practices that have catastrophic consequences for smaller cogs in the machine.
It’s 1981, and Khalid has big dreams for his future. He works in the West End, determined to attain the wealth displayed by the clients he encounters in the Playboy casino, determined “to be the paymaster. Nothing else in the world could give you authority, and respect”. He’s also married to a beautiful woman and has a daughter, Alia. Always the optimist, when London Playboy is shut down, he’s not worried about losing his job. He’ll take a position with the company in the Bahamas. But alongside this optimism, Khalid is a gambler. He makes bad decisions, his relationship breaks down, he’s in serious debt, and so throws himself into an investment opportunity he's certain will solve all his problems, until his body is found washed-up far from home.
Sliding to 2003 (the narrative masterfully moves between the two timeframes) and Alia, now a Junior English tutor at Oxford University, is drawn to visit her father’s extended family in Karachi to discover what really happened to him.
A gripping family mystery with emotional depth and intriguing social context – Edgware Road is a riveting, smartly-written debut.
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| Primary Genre | General Fiction |
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It’s 1987, and 11 year old Alia Quraishi is waiting for her unreliable father to meet her for a contact visit. But Khalid never arrives, and Alia spends the rest of this gripping novel working out the complex reasons why he's disappeared.
In 1987, 11 year old Alia Quraishi is waiting at Edgeware Road tube station for her unreliable father to meet her for a contact visit. But Khalid never arrives, and Alia spends the rest of this gripping novel working out the complex reasons why.
Her investigations take her from her home in Oxford, across the world to Pakistan and Goa, in search of Khalid's family and friends, whom she hopes might help her make sense of his disappearance and subsequent death. As she does so, she grapples with her own cultural identity, and how the absence of her father has affected her.... Read Full Review
Enticing writing style that evokes London in the 80s and draws you into the characters and their journey.
I was attracted to the book by the theme of family and identity and the journey of self-discovery.
I was drawn very quickly into the book by the enticing writing style and the evocation of London in the 1980s, a period I remember well – brought alive. The highlight was the development of the characters. I did find some of the background detail a bit of a distraction, but not a significant issue. I was held by the story and wanted to get to the end.
Looking forward to Yasmin’s next book.... Read Full Review
This is a really strong, evocative debut novel and one which I will certainly be recommending
“Where do you find a lost father? In the mirror, in the sweep of an arched eyebrow, in the sheen of hair?”
Alia is searching for the truth about her father’s death 20 years ago. The book takes us between Alia's life as an academic in Oxford in 2003 and her father Khalid’s life as a croupier in 1980s London.
Khalid is a gambling addict working at the Playboy club but he is keen to move up to the big time.... Read Full Review
A wide-ranging and affecting debut novel about family and identity, from an award-winning historian.
1981. Khalid Quraishi is one of the lucky ones. He works nights in the glitzy West End, and comes home every morning to his beautiful wife and daughter. He's a world away from Karachi and the family he left behind.
But Khalid likes to gamble, and he likes to win. Twenty pounds on the fruit machine, fifty on a sure-thing horse, a thousand on an investment that seems certain to pay out. Now he's been offered a huge opportunity, a chance to get in early with a new bank, and it looks like he'll finally have his big win.
2003. Alia Quraishi doesn't really remember her dad. After her parents' divorce she hardly saw him, and her mum refuses to talk about her charming ex-husband. So, when he died in what the police wrote off as a sad accident, Alia had no reason to believe there was more going on.
Now almost twenty years have passed and she's tired of only understanding half of who she is. Her dad's death alone and miles from his west London stomping ground doesn't add up with the man she knew. If she's going to find out the truth about her father - and learn about the other half of herself - Alia is going to have to visit his home, a place she's never been, and connect with a family that feel more like strangers.
Edgware Road features in the following genres: General Fiction, Debut Books of the Month, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging, Fiction, Fiction: narrative themes, Recommendations
Edgware Road is available in Paperback, Hardback, Ebook (Epub)
Edgware Road was written by Yasmin Cordery Khan and published by Head of Zeus
Edgware Road has 358 pages
