I tried two times to get into this book. No success. This book is tedious, too much unnecessary detail. Couldn't finish it.

Sad and gorgeous; a little hard to get into, but once I hit about the midpoint, I was hooked.

This book was beautiful. I loved the way the author plays with language, the imagery was harsh and gorgeous at the same time. Sometimes the wordplay almost got in the way of the story, but it worked for me.

Gorgeous writing. Hard to describe all that I am thinking about as a result of reading this book - love, religion, secularism, immigration, misogyny...and birds and butterflies. Like a Shakespearean tragedy with attention to nature - actual and mystical.

The writing on this book was lovely, but I have to say that I didn't have a lot of time for reading this book and so it was hard to get into unfortunately. It wasn't until the last third of the book that I had a lot of time to read it. The writing is lovely and the interweaving of the stories of the Pakistani residents of an English town quite enlightening. It was very interesting to me to see how the Pakistani muslims viewed the "unclean" dominant culture. The tragedy at the centre of the story is the disappearance of Jugnu and Chanda, a couple living in sin and the brother of Shamas, a progressive thinking man next door and his conservative wife. There are stories within stories here, including those of illegal immigrants to England. I wish I'd finished it in time to discuss with my book group (I only got one third through) though!

The story was interesting and enlightening but the level of detail and flowery writing just got in the way for me. It took me forever to read because of this.

Spoiler

This is one of the most underwhelming books I’ve ever read. It literally took me three months to get through it. The book starts with some potential, and vaguely addresses the realities of Pakistani immigrants in Britain. However, as the story unfolds, it’s clear this is just another orientalist fantasy.
Under the guise of “authenticity” and “realness,” the book depicts a generalized and simplified version of Islam that is deemed to be inherently violent. The book lacks any complexity or nuance in its understanding of religion and fundamentalism. Furthermore, this is also applied to the women characters in the book. They are painted as gullible believers, brainwashed into a religious system. These women are also depicted as the tools used to continue religious fundamentalism & violence throughout generations.
Unlike the men in the novel (I.e. Shamas & Jugnu), the women in the novel remain static and undeveloped. Although the men also commit great harm, their harm is depicted as part of a larger and complex character. The women, on the other hand, are not given that luxury. The men become the heroes as the women and Islam become the villains.
The novel also lacks a critical understanding of islamophobia, xenophobia, & colonialism. Rather, these instances are used ironically to serve as excuses fueling religious violence. Essentially this book is western white atheism/secularism meets Pakistani expat with internalized islamophobia. It’s no wonder that almost all high reviews are not from South Asians and Muslims, themselves.

Also—- the writing is just really fucking bad and and confusing