Next of Kin

Leila Syed is at work on an ordinary day when her brother-in-law phones in a panic. His son's nursery has rung to ask where little Max is. Leila was meant to take Max there that morning, and she forgot.

She runs to the carpark and realises what her lapse has done. The call splits her life into a before and an after.

The book becomes a courtroom drama. A high-profile trial follows, and it tears the family apart. The relationship between Leila and her sister Yasmin, Max's mother, sits at the centre of the case.

It is a legal thriller with a tense, fast-moving feel, and the trial turns on a hard question. The book hints that the incident holds more than it first appears to, and that the case will bring something to light that no one in the family expects.

The book won the Diverse Adult Book Award in 2022.