Best Of Friends

CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF 2022 BY THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, DAILY MAIL AND FINANCIAL TIMES

Karachi, 1988. Pakistan is on the brink of seismic change. But for Maryam and Zahra, heading back to high school, there is a reassuring continuity. Despite their very different families, and diverging ambitions for the future, the two remain the best of friends.

Then a snap decision made at an election night party brings the girls' childhoods to an abrupt end - and its consequences will shape both their destinies in ways they cannot foresee.

Years later, and Zahra and Maryam are at the top of their respective fields in London. Zahra, after a brilliant career as a barrister, is a human rights activist; while Maryam is a tech entrepreneur, granted more and more access to the most privileged corridors of power.

When not one but two unwelcome ghosts from Zahra and Maryam's shared past re-enter their world, both women's carefully ordered lives are thrown into turmoil. For this unsettling return will drive them to secret acts of desperation - and terrible betrayal.

An unflinching exploration of contemporary identity, and a painfully intimate unpicking of the complexities of female friendship, Best of Friends dares to ask - what do we owe the people who have known us the longest?