Edgware Road: Yasmin Cordery Khan

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This story is filled with real life characters and events which made it all the more fun to read, this is one that grips you from the start as you become connected with the characters and find yourself wanting to understand what happened to Khalid. This is a very cleverly written book about corruption, migration and privilege. well worth a read.

You’ll find it so easy to relax in your air-conditioned double or family room. Feel invigorated in the power shower in your en-suite bathroom using the complimentary toiletries before putting your feet up in front of your flat-screen TV.

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That’s all interesting, but it was the characters of Khalid and Alia I enjoyed most, and the contrast between their generations and the cultures and how people mix – or not. The behemoth of a task ahead of him. (In fact the towering building, Capital House, commissioned the wry sculpture). We come to Nawras, an emporium peddling luxury chocolates and dates — as well as glitzy trinkets to serve them from. Behind the till, Hannane tells us that it is largely customers from the Middle East who shop here. In this heat, juices and ice cream are wheeled out the front of the shop too. But Khalid’s story also displays youth and how the world actually is your oyster for a while, and there really is jam tomorrow; and that such truths can in rare circumstances be multiplied by emigration, where some combination of displacement and survival instinct can result in meteoric climbing, both social as well as financial.

But Khalid likes to gamble, and he likes to win. Twenty pounds on the fruit machine, fifty on a sure-thing horse, a thousand on an investment that seems certain to pay out. Now he's been offered a huge opportunity, a chance to get in early with a new bank, and it looks like he'll finally have his big win. This is the poorer, grottier stretch: fewer flash estate agents and restaurants, more white goods being flogged out on the pavement. (Until the residents of West End Gate request that they're moved, of course). Pacing is also an issue. The first third of the novel is well paced, but the rest, from the middle section through to the conclusion, feels rushed. Alia’s on-off relationship with her flatmate goes nowhere, and whilst Denby’s perspective is an interesting one, he often reads like an afterthought and never quite earns his place in the story. How an immigrant Khalid Qurashi, who has been trying to make his way with work at the biggest casino in London finds an opportunity to move beyond bets on horses and slot machines to the 'big' time. But when the big time includes names such as Abedi and Khashoggi then you may find yourself beyond your depth.Waves of Middle Eastern residents have brought with them great colour to this part of town. Including the many independent fruit stalls and supermarkets, with their unwrapped mounds of chilies, okra and baby aubergine. Meanwhile Alia is searching for clues following the disappearance of her father. In an endeavour to discover the truth, Alia’s travels take her from exploring the streets of London to connecting with distant relatives in Pakistan. A daughter of a post-partition Pakistani family now living in England, her complex heritage forms a significant part of her narrative. Dr Yasmin Khan (St Peter’s, 1996) is a historian of British India and Associate Professor of History at Kellogg College, Oxford.