i've read two other of ayisha malik's books before, i found out about this author from readers first and so when i saw she had released a new book, i was immediately interested. as a british muslim, i can understand the conflict of your roots and religion with being british born. ayisha malik manages to perfectly represent a large group of people and depict our emotions very clearly. in the first chapter, a sixty plus old pakistani mother on her death bed is the very powerful narrator, and shows a perspective that has never really been portrayed before. we can already see the huge conflict bilal is going to go through in this book, she doesn't say the arabic prayer muslims should read before dying because she wants to give him his mission, so we can understand how difficult it must be to reject that idea. we can sense what his relationship with his mother must've been like, his own values and the description of the other characters in the book, including bilal's wife. bilal's mother seems to dislike mariam, but after seeing bilal's interactions with her later on in the chapter, although their seems to be issues, they do have that love for one another. i can't wait for this book to be released as i'll definitely buy it