GOOD INTENTIONS

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‘Yasmina and Nur have been together for four happy years, but Nur has yet to tell his Pakistani parents his girlfriend exists. This is a promising debut about second-generation immigrants, family obligation and love.' — Niamh Donnelly, Irish Independent, ‘The Hottest Books of the Year Ahead' Read more...

‘Ali's accolades – being shortlisted for Hachette's Mo Siewcherran Prize and shortlisted for the 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize – precede his arrival onto the literary landscape this March. Nur and Yasmina have been in love for four years. The twist? Nur's Pakistani parents don't know that Yasmina exists, or that she is Black. What follows is a love story full of hard choices and tensions, family obligations and racial prejudices. Not to be missed by fans of MODERN LOVE.' — Sana Goyal, Vogue India, ‘10 books by debut diaspora authors that tackle important questions about identity'

‘The sensitive story of a failing romance offers a clever vehicle for an unflinching depiction of South Asian anti-black prejudice and the conflicting pressures of family and culture. The scene in which Yasmina finally confronts her lover about his own complicity is particularly powerful. There are no easy answers on offer in GOOD INTENTIONS but the questions about race, relationships and mental health are absorbing.' —The Independent Read more...

“A rather clever novel about vulnerability and victimhood that subtly subverts the reader's expectations a determinedly intimate story composed of seemingly humdrum conversations that gradually complicate our ideas about Nur it skilfully lulls us into thinking of him as helpless before showing the dangers of an overdeveloped persecution complex. On the surface GOOD INTENTIONS is a poignant romance about the cultural barriers that stand in the way of two young people pursuing an honest relationship. Yet beneath there is a cautionary tale about what happens when you get so caught up in your own vulnerability that you forget your responsibility to others.' — The Sunday Times, ‘Has the Male Equivalent of Sally Rooney Finally Arrived?' Read more...

Eksmo

‘Kasim Ali boldly grasps the nettle of South Asian prejudice in his debut novel, a story of divided loyalties and the weight of tradition that suggests that panic attack prone Nur may not be the most reliable of narrators. What lies behind his professed “good intentions” may be uglier than he's prepared to admit. Ali's cast of characters are well drawn, from wise Imran, who has to deal with coming out to his parents, to Nur's boyhood friend Rahat and Yasmina's troubled little sister, Hawa. Nur's constant foot-in-mouth foul-ups, as he offends everyone in turn, are piquantly cringeworthy. And what a tonic to have a book that takes the topic of race in Britain outside the capital.' — Siobhan Murphy, The Times Read more...

‘Family obligation and racial prejudice sit alongside the rush of first love. Expect to be heartbroken.' – Elle Magazine

Henry Holt (Spring 2022)

‘A debut novel that suggests the term "star-crossed romance" may just be a way of pinning on the innocent cosmos the damage we do ourselves, without meaning to.Nur is a young Brit, eldest son in a close-knit family of Pakistani immigrants. As the novel begins on New Year's Eve, he is about to spill the news to his parents that he has, for the last four years, been seeing a woman – has for the last two of those been living with her, secretly – and that he intends to marry her. Yasmina is charming, self-possessed, lovely, intelligent, a Ph.D. student with a bright future; she's also the child of immigrants, also a practicing Muslim. But Nur's announcement has been long-delayed, and it feels guilty and furtive and fraught, an occasion for anxiety rather than joy. So why the hesitation, the cloak-and-dagger – why the lies? Because Yasmina's family is Sudanese, and Nur worries about his family's response to her Blackness. The rest of the book moves backward to depict, uncomfortably but effectively, the private history that's led to Nur's announcement and moves forward to explore the implications of his delay and reluctance for his relationships with both his family and Yasmina. The backward-looking part of the book has the plot of conventional romance; the forward-looking part, which explores the aftermath of Nur's announcement (built largely around his dithery way of arranging a first meeting between his parents and Yasmina's), is fresher and more compelling. In the tradition of Spike Lee's film School Daze, Ali's novel explores the ways that racism may do its insidious damage even among those who are traditionally not its targets and victims. Despite Nur's sense that he's impeccably right-minded and anti-racist, despite the fact that he truly loves Yasmina and wants to make his life with her, his insistence on putting off and putting off telling his family about his beloved may be less a realist's acknowledgment of the racism in the world than a kind of accommodation of or even collusion with it. An exploration of the ways that race and family ties may complicate or imperil romance even if everyone means well.' — Kirkus

‘A brilliantly readable exploration of the love between Nur, whose Pakistani parents don't know anything about his Black girlfriend, Yasmina, this is both captivating and heartbreaking.' — Francesca Brown, Stylist Magazine, ‘March 2022's Best New Books' Read more...

‘A young British Pakistani man must choose between family and true love in Ali's alluring debut .Ali shapes their relationship with vulnerable conversations about race and privilege, as Nur and Yasmina worry they might never be good enough for each other. In the end, they realize they ought to get in tune with themselves rather than force romantic bliss. It's fairly familiar terrain, but well-drawn supporting characters such as Nur's gay Muslim friend Imran round out this thoughtful portrait of young people weighing the bonds of tradition with personal identity. Readers will root for this imperfect love until the end.' – Publishers Weekly

‘Look out for Kasim Ali's GOOD INTENTIONS in March. It tells the story of a British Muslim man who must tell his parents he's in love with a Black woman.' — Charlotte Heathcote, Sunday Express,

‘Kasim Ali's GOOD INTENTIONS features another set of starcrossed lovers, Yasmina and Nur, who meet at university. They're both Muslim but Yasmina is of Sudanese origin, while Nur's family roots are in Pakistan. He avoids telling his parents that his adored girlfriend is black for four years; it's never “the right time”. There's no ironic distance between the author and the protagonists, and the lengthy passages of dialogue feel like eavesdropping on a low-level argument between a couple at the next restaurant table. The general impression is that, with solid jobs and homes out of reach, these earnest millennials have vastly over-invested in relationships, and that carries its own poignancy.' — Suzy Feay, The Financial Times Read more...