This Green and Pleasant Land: Winner of The Diverse Book Awards 2020
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By Ayisha Malik
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1 review
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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.
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14 of us met in our relocated meeting - the heated cabins in The Hope pub. We discussed two books including this . Summary of our less than impressed comments:-
Left it in Turkey as it didnt deserve suitcase space! Caricatures, Stereotypes. Tried but gave up. A disappointment. Couldn't finish it. Made no sense. Liked the colour of the cover but that was all!
So a less than successful read - with a total score of 18 averaging 3 points from the 6 people who had managed to read some of it without giving up completely!
