Best of Friends

Zahra and Maryam have been best friends since childhood in Karachi. They are unlike in nearly every way, and they never talk about the gaps in their backgrounds or their values. Not even after one night when an impulsive adolescent moment overturns their plans for the future.

Thirty years on, both women have become powerful figures, each making her own way through London. Then two troubling figures from their past resurface, and the silence around their differences can no longer hold.

The novel follows a lifelong friendship across decades and two cities, from adolescence to middle age. Its tone is moving and humane, and the plot takes turns the reader does not see coming.

The question underneath is an old one, whether the better friend is the person who holds to principle or the one who stays loyal. Zahra and Maryam have to settle it for themselves, and the answer decides whether the friendship survives.