The Family Tree

Written By Linda Malek
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The Family Tree by Sairish Hussain
Reviewed by Linda
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This is fiction at its finest - so closely paralleled to reality that the line between the two is blurred. Sairish depicts the story of a British Pakistani family residing in Yorkshire pre 9/11 to the present day.⁣
It’s interesting to read about a society that we don’t even refer to anymore but one that we in fact lived and grew up in for a time. ⁣
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We follow young Saahil, baby Zahra and their father Amjad, plus a few immediate relations and family friends as they tackle the beast that is life in the only way they know how: kinship and community. This aspect of the novel touched me the most and when Saahil’s life, and as a result his whole family’s, takes a complete 180 at the brutal beating of his best friend and brother Ehsi, it couldn’t be more apparent. ⁣
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What we have here is a legit coming of age novel which will break your heart and have you shocked at every turn. ⁣
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Between pages, Sairish takes the reader through religion, British stereotypes of those who observe and the prejudice that they face as a result, the different familial pressures and expectations that ethnic kids have growing up, bullying, self-preservation and identity.⁣
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In her foreword, Sairish writes that she did not read the narrative she wanted to read about growing up and so she wrote it herself - there is no denying the authenticity on any level. There are no gimmicks or wannabe un-relatable scenarios (we’ve read a few in this genre), nor are there any predictable endings here and I won’t spoil it for you.

Also @sairish.hussain is such a babe and this book was actually written as part of her PhD thesis which she recently and successfully defended! ⁣

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

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