The book....
Leila is the eight-year-old daughter of Hassan Nassiri, a wealthy Iranian property owner, and younger sister to the adored Fayruz, her father's favourite daughter.
But a holiday narrowboat tragedy has far-reaching consequences for the surviving family. Hassan withdraws into reclusive grief, when he’s not escaping into work, or high jinks with his men friends at his second home in Hampstead, leaving Leila to fend for herself in a lonely world of nannies, chess and star-gazing.
Leila eventually runs away from home and joins a family of travellers in Sussex, and so follows a tale of adventure, danger and romance – and further anguish for her surviving family. But how will she fare at such a young age and will her family ever find her?
My thoughts...
Unfortunately I didn’t have time to read it in time for the one day blog blitz on 7th March (sometimes life and work interferes with my reading time, which is simply unacceptable), but I have now and I really enjoyed it. It’s a short novel but an absorbing and unusual one.
Hassan, a wealthy Iranian businessman living in London, is husband to Samira and father to his two little princesses - Fayruz and Leila - though Fayruz is the acknowledged favourite. When Fayruz is killed in an accident when Leila is eight years old, everything changes.
Leila’s parents are lost in their grief and there is no time or thought for Leila. (Even Fayruz’s cat - a painful reminder for her parents but a comfort for Leila - is given away.) When boarding school is suggested, what is Leila, by now nearly eleven, to do but run away?
The story is told alternately by Leila and Hassan - although the Leila sections are longer. I loved her voice, which is very engaging. Feisty, funny and at times heartbreaking. While I enjoyed the first part of the book it wasn’t unputdownable, but it really picked up pace for me when Leila ran away and from that point I was riveted.
Leila is brave and resourceful but has no idea how vulnerable she really is. She is fortunate to fall in immediately with people who are kind to her, but as she moves on dangers are all around and come terrifyingly close at times. As the mother of an eleven year old girl, it made alarming reading. Leila’s new life is far from the privileged bubble she has hitherto inhabited - far from the beautiful rooms of her home. Will she ever return, and how changed will she be? Meanwhile her father Hassan is on his own journey...
Kate Rigby skilfully inhabits the minds of both characters and has delivered an entrancing read.
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The author....
She realized her unhip credentials were mounting so she decided to write about it. Little Guide to Unhip was first published in 2010 and it has since been updated.
However, she’s not completely unhip. Her punk novel, Fall Of The Flamingo Circus was published by Allison & Busby (1990) and by Villard (American hardback 1990). Skrev Press published her novels Seaview Terrace (2003) Sucka!(2004) and Break Point (2006) and other shorter work has appeared in Skrev’s avant garde magazine Texts’ Bones.
Thalidomide Kid was published by Bewrite Books (2007).
She has had other short stories published and shortlisted including Hard Workers and Headboards, first published in The Diva Book of Short Stories and as part of the Dancing In The Dark erotic anthology, Pfoxmoor Publishing (2011). Hard Workers is to republished for a third time - in an anthology called ‘Condoms & Hot Tubs Don’t Mix’ - an anthology of Sexcapades - which is due to be published by Beating Windward Press in the US in February 2018. It is her shortest ever story and yet the most popular in that sense! All proceeds will go towards planned parenthood.
She also received a Southern Arts bursary for her novel Where A Shadow Played (now re-Kindled as Did You Whisper Back?).
More information can be found at her website::
Or her occasional blog:
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Thanks so much for taking the time to review my book and so glad you enjoyed it!
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