No Funeral for Nazia by Taha Kehar - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for No Funeral for Nazia by Taha Kehar! It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do have a click around and read some of my other reviews. I was intrigued by the premise of this book and liked it, so I'm glad to have joined in on the tour. 

As the title implies, Nazia has died and there is to be no funeral for her. She was living in the house of her sister, Naureen, and her husband, Asfand. The two sisters didn't always get on, and Nazia had had an affair with Asfand some years previously, but Naureen had cared for her sister as she was dying and now wants to enact her last wishes. These are that there is no funeral, but that several of her friends and relatives are invited over, alongside a mysterious stranger, for the evening. 

There is Nazia's daughter, Sabeen, now a woman in her mid twenties, who was estranged from Nazia. She had been living with Parveen, an old friend of Nazia's. Parveen is also at the party, as is Nazia's ex husband Salman. The final guests - apart from the mystery one, who I won't spoil - are a couple who were friends of Nazia too. They had all fallen out with her, though. Nazia was not a likeable person and had really screwed some people over - but they had also done wrong to her. In fact no one in the book is particularly likeable, which makes it an interesting read! 

I would recommend this book for fans of Kamila Shamsie and the like. I loved the setting and the secrets and lies that came out. 

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi! It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do click around and read some of my other reviews. I was intrigued by the premise of this book and am glad I signed up for the tour because I really liked it. 

The novel has three protagonists: Zohaib, his younger sister Misha, and Nadia. Zohaib and Misha grew up in relative wealth in Lahore, and Nadia was the daughter of one of their maids. She is between the two of them in age, and while they're friendly and while Misha and she often act like sisters, obviously there is a class difference between them and always will be. 

Misha's parts are in the past, when she was just a little girl of about eight. She is a spoilt child, but loved by her parents and family. Hers is a mostly easy childhood, coddled by her family. 

In the present time, Zohaib and Nadia are living lives literally and metaphorically thousands of miles apart. Zohaib is living in London. He has a friend, Talha, and a therapist that he sees often. He's about twenty six at this point I think. Talha is often worried about him and asks him to go trekking in Peru with him. Zohaib has mental health problems and clearly has a lot of past trauma. He is no longer close to his parents, who are now divorced, but both still in Pakistan. 

Nadia, also known as Nono, is living in poverty. She has an office job that she loves, but her husband is a drug addict and is out of work. She's pregnant and is sexually harassed by men in her office. She fears for the future and eventually heads back to her childhood home. 

It was obvious something bad had happened but I didn't guess what, which I did like, although I didn't guess exactly what. I really liked the setting of the book and could imagine the family home perfectly. I really liked Nadia as a character and wanted her to do really well. In all i'm giving this four out of five and am glad I joined in the tour for it!