FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Drawn from the creative and political minds of today’s diaspora, these upcoming novels—from head-on honest to downright hilarious—are poised to be the debuts of the season, says Sana Goyal

- Sana Goyal

BROWN GIRLS by Daphne Palasi Andreadas (4th Estate) Welcomed into the world with a long list of endorsements from the likes of Megha Majumdar and Raven Leilani, Brown Girls, out next month, dives deep into the lives of a group of young women of colour growing up in Queens, New York, and follows their journey from girlhood to adulthood. A love letter to women of colour the world over, the 2016 Booker Prize winner Paul Beatty put it best when he described the book as “a late-night FM radio dedication to the crew, the block, and the mission”.

THE RETURN OF FARAZ ALI

BY AAMINA AHMAD

(RIVERHEAD BOOKS)

Praised by award-winning novelists Kamila Shamsie and Yaa Gyasi, and set in the “walled-off-world of Lahore’s red-light district” during Pakistan in the anarchic late 1960s, Ahmad’s novel, out in April 2022, is a multilayered and multigenerational saga where power and patriarchy, politics and corruption collide in a caste-ridden society. Gripping, moving and atmospheric, this book is a quest for answers among secrets in the city’s alleys.

WE MOVE

BY GURNAIK JOHAL

(SERPENT’S TAIL)

Johal, who was shortlisted for