Good Intentions
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"Absorbing, compelling, and beautifully written. Its ending brought me close to tears." —Beth O'Leary, bestselling author of The Flatshare
For fans of The Big Sick and Nick Hornby—a magnetic debut novel about a young man who has hidden a romance from his parents, unable to choose between familial obligation and the future he truly wants.
If love really is a choice, how do you decide where your loyalties lie?
It’s the countdown to the New Year, and Nur is steeling himself to tell his parents that he’s seeing someone. A young British Pakistani man, Nur has spent years omitting details about his personal life to maintain his image as the golden child. And it’s come at a cost.
Once, Nur was a restless college student, struggling to fit in. At a party, he meets Yasmina, a beautiful and self-possessed aspiring journalist. They start a conversation—first awkward, then absorbing. And as their relationship develops, so too does Nur’s self-destruction. He falls deeper into traps of his own making, attempting to please both Yasmina and his family until he must finally reveal the truth: Yasmina is Black, and he loves her.
Deftly transporting readers between that first night and the years beyond, Kasim Ali's Good Intentions exposes with unblinking authenticity the complexities of immigrant families and racial prejudice. It is a crackling, wryly clever depiction of standing on the precipice of adulthood, piecing together who it is you’re meant to be.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A young British Pakistani man must choose between family and true love in Ali's alluring debut. From the moment Nur meets Yasmina at a party in 2014 while at university, he believes she could be the one for him—their conversation flows effortlessly, and she makes him feel "whole." But he's nervous his conservative family won't approve of her, because she's Black ("It's bad enough marrying an Indian or a Bangladeshi Muslim. Maybe, just maybe, they'd be okay with someone white"). He keeps the relationship a secret for four years, even after they move in together, which creates tension between him and Yasmina, whose parents adore Nur. 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.
