Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love

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In a stunning juxtaposition, Huma Qureshi utilises articulate and evocative language to communicate all the issues and concerns her characters can’t. In a sharp, beautifully executed collection of short stories, we explore the clashes of cultures, generations, and class divides with themes of love, familial relationships, motherhood, friendship, fertility, and death. Qureshi's stories keenly identify the everyday tragedies of feeling profoundly unknown or unheard, of holding secrets and misunderstandings . . . These tales vividly capture the experience of feeling constrained by family expectations, but also of not quite fitting the norms of British culture either . . . Qureshi takes the reader plausibly inside the inner recess of characters' hearts and minds. Premonition beautifully recalls the intensity of a first crush, developed via "a private symphony of glances", before a bewildering first kiss leads to disaster. And she captures how such incidents can, in adulthood, seem insignificant and still life-defining . . . there are so many striking images to relish. - Observer Four of the 10 short stories in Huma Qureshi’s debut collection are set on holidays. In Summer, a grown-up daughter invites her mother along on a family trip to the south of France, with fraught results. In Foreign Parts, tensions arise between Mark and his wife, Amina, during a visit to Lahore. In Waterlogged, a tired mother nursing a newborn is irritated by her partner while staying at a genteel B&B in Oxford. And in Small Differences, Tasneem feels alienated while holidaying with her boyfriend, Simon, and his family in Tuscany.

thoughts on “Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love by Huma Qureshi: A quietly accomplished collection”Every aspect of her body or personality was up for inspection: too big, too small, too available, too hidden, too much, not enough.”

stars. Many areas covered in these stories - friendships, to relationships to family dynamics. The main characters are south asian heritage however many of the experiences cross cultures. Love and loss are love and loss wherever you are. It would have been the perfect summer; if not for my father’s death” – from the first lines, short story collection Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love, by Huma Qureshi, grabs attention with its simplicity and intimate honesty. With disarming frankness the author writes about real life, ordinary people, and their relationships with themselves and others. Read this book as a part of our April Bookclub, I was really looking forward to it. It was a hit for some of our members, but not for me, sadly.In the story, Too Much, which is possibly my favorite on the list, a daughter gradually leaves her dependent mother's life before changing her identity and disappearing entirely, leaving the mother sad and distraught. It was raw, poignant, and intellectually stimulating.