Despite the years, her handwriting remains unchanged: big loops, rounded forms and circles for dots. I smile, then tut. She's put Sydney on the envelope rather than Melbourne. Judging by the date on the postmark, it's been round the whole of Australia to get here.
***
It's 1981 in the suburbs of Blackburn and, as Rafi’s mother reminds him daily, the family moved here from Pakistan to give him the best opportunities. But Rafi longs to follow his own path. Flamboyant,
dramatic and musically gifted, he wants to be a Bollywood star.
Twenty years later, Rafi is flying home from Australia for his best friend’s wedding. He has everything he ever wanted: starring roles in musical theatre, the perfect boyfriend and freedom from expectation. But returning to Blackburn is the ultimate test: can he show his true self to his community?
Navigating family and identity from boyhood to adulthood, as well as the changing eras of ABBA, skinheads and urbanisation, Rafi must follow his heart to achieve his dreams.
***
This was a wonderful book to read. Anyone who has grown up feeling that they were different will love this book. Even if that was not you, this is a great book to read. It is a heart rending story, filled with love and humour.
We follow the main character, Rafi, from his childhhood in the north of England, through to adulthood in Australia. Rafi is a fully realised character and I thorougly enjoyed getting to know him in this book. As a child he is theatrical and flamboyant. He is bullied at school and by his older brother at home, but when he is with his best friend Shazia, he is a child able to dazzle.
Rafi's mum, has a huge role in the book too. She is a colourful character, who wears flowers in her hair, sings, dances and cossetts Rafi. Whilst Rafi has his heart set on Bollywood, she wants him to have a respectable career as doctor, lawyer or account; the standard aspirations for sons in her Pakistani Muslim community. Her concerns with how others will perceive Rafi is to the forefront of her mind.
To the reader, it is abuldantly clear from the outset that Rafi is homosexual. How he will handle this within a community that is unaccepting is the main theme running through the book. The author accomplishes this superbly. His writing is full of compassion but imbued with humour. There were several occasions on which I would have liked to reach into the book and give Rafi a hug. I was fully invested in his story and I do not think I will forget him in a hurry.
This is an outstandingly compelling book which is well deserving of a five star rating. Reading it made for an immersive and gripping experience. This is Mr. Hussain's debut book and I think he is one to watch. I would defintely want to read another novel by this author if he were to write one. It is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.
ISBN: 978 1800183148
Publisher: Unbound
Formats: e-book, audio and paperback
No. of Pages: 359 (paperback)
About the Author:
Iqbal Hussain is a writer from Blackburn, Lancashire and he lives in London. His work appears in various anthologies and on websites including The Willowherb Review, The Hopper and caughtbytheriver.
He is a recipient of the inaugural London Writers’ Awards 2018 and he won Gold in the Creative Future Writers’ Awards 2019. In 2022, he won first prize in Writing Magazine’s Grand Flash competition and was joint runner-up in the Evening Standard Short Story Competition. In 2023, his story ‘I’ll Never Be Young Again’ won first prize in the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature short story competition. He was also Highly Commended in the Emerging Writer Award from The Bridge Award. Northern Boy is his first novel.
(book and media courtesy of Random Things Tours)
(all opinions are my own)
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