Playing Games

The remarkable debut novel from critically acclaimed writer Huma Qureshi: a poignant story of art and sisterhood, family, marriage and betrayal

'The frame contains an old photo from when they were girls, in matching dresses their mother bought them . . . when Hana visits Mira, she pulls a face at the picture, asks Mira why she has kept it.'

Hana and Mira are sisters. They are each other's only family. They are very different.

Hana wants a perfect life. She's a rising star in her legal field. Her wardrobe is as elegant as her north London home. Her friends are having their second children and she is ready to be a mother. But Samir is hesitating, and Hana feels like time is running out.

Mira wants a creative life. She's subletting from a noisy flatmate and her café job drains her energy. She has always dreamed of being a playwright but she can never finish anything, and Hana's dismissal of her artistic ambitions wears away at her.

One night, after dinner, Mira overhears a fight between Hana and Samir: an exchange that rings in her mind and finds it way into a new script. In her tender and insightful debut novel, Huma Qureshi asks what sisters can borrow from each other and what a strained but loving relationship can withstand.