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Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love

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Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love

By: Huma Qureshi
Narrated by: Aysha Kala, Tania Rodrigues
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About this listen

 'A deft, satisfying and poignant collection of stories which pivot around a moment of shock or revelation - and challenge the idea that shame can be unburdened and secrets liberated, by sharing them with others. I loved it.' PANDORA SYKES

A collection about mothers and daughters, children lost, unborn, grown up, grown apart, and the dissonance between lovers. It exposes the silences in families and the parts of ourselves we rarely reveal. A daughter asks her mother to shut up, only to shut her up for good; an exhausted wife walks away from the husband who doesn't understand her; on holiday, lovers no longer understand each other away from home. The underlying themes of loneliness, secrets, family and displacement and also the desire to belong to someone, to some place; a yearning for love, intertwine these stories. The collection includes The Jam Maker, which has just been awarded the Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize 2020.

(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©2021 Our Storytime Limited Anthologies & Short Stories Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Short Stories Marriage

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Critic reviews

Qureshi's stories keenly identify the everyday tragedies of feeling profoundly unknown or unheard, of holding secrets and misunderstandings . . . These tales vividly capture the experience of feeling constrained by family expectations, but also of not quite fitting the norms of British culture either . . . Qureshi takes the reader plausibly inside the inner recesses of characters' hearts and minds. Premonition beautifully recalls the intensity of a first crush, developed via "a private symphony of glances", before a bewildering first kiss leads to disaster. And she captures how such incidents can, in adulthood, seem insignificant and still life-defining . . . there are so many striking images to relish. (Holly Williams)
[Qureshi] has a wonderfully luminous, understated style of writing (Diana Evans)
A beautiful short-story collection . . . heartbreaking and hopeful.
Well told stories with well realised characters . . . Qureshi, like [Jhumpa] Lahiri, is a companionable and considered writer, and this is a collection you can read enjoyably, rain or shine. (Shahidha Bari)
Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love is a collection full of secrets and yearnings, the gaps and silences found so often in misunderstandings and miscommunications. These stories work to fill those gaps, creating found families and belonging, and showing the sides of ourselves others rarely see . . . Qureshi's writing conveys the emotions her characters cannot . . . Each story is tightly written and closely edited, ending at the perfect moment . . . Exploring different relationships - mother and daughter, friendships, young love, spouses - Qureshi pulls apart the emotions surrounding each one, making even the darker narratives relatable and evocative. (Terri-Jane Dow)
Intimate and incredibly insightful
A luscious debut . . Qureshi is a dab hand at yanking the rug out from under the reader. Her immersive, poignant stories - written mostly in understated prose - often have a sting in the tale . . I fell for this lyrical, moving collection and the woozy intensity that infuses many of its stories. Qureshi creates gripping plotlines and vividly drawn characters and - most importantly - she is a writer with something to say. (Gwendolyn Smith)
A deft, satisfying and poignant collection of stories which pivot around a moment of shock or revelation - and challenge the idea that shame can be unburdened and secrets liberated, by sharing them with others. I loved it. (Pandora Sykes)
[An] impressive debut collection
Huma Qureshi writes like a psychotherapist, considering, analysing, explaining, seeking outconflicts, evasions, and discomforts . . . The form suits her: she succeeds in a short space in describing her settings and defining her characters . . . there are notes of optimism that sound from true love; and, as always, amor vincit omnia. (Brian Martin)
All stars
Most relevant
I had high hopes but this was a bit disappointing, stories were a similar to one another and lacked intrigue.

lacking variety

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I thought that these were wonderfully narrated, and the stories beautiful. I recommend this book to people interested in the lives of others.

Loved these stories

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I really enjoyed these short stories. Crisply and delicately written and lasting just over 5 hours, you can listen to them a second time and pick up subtleties of language or feeling you particularly liked or may have missed first time around. The two narrators are absolutely in tune too.

The theme of the stories is the poignant tragedies of relationships, relationships made more specific because of the characters' cultural backgrounds of upper class / upper middle class Pakistani heritage. The main conflicts are between daughters struggling to escape the stifling constraints of their doting, overbearing mothers who expect expect their daughters to conform to their mores and traditions. Having struggled free, the daughters find themselves in a British milieu in which they don't quite fit despite their expensive educations. Qureshi varies the theme enough for it not to be repetitive but explored in different ways. Heart-breaking is the painful story from the mother Shaheen's viewpoint. Shaheen has prepared her daughter Amal's favourite meal as she waits for her daughter's flight to land. But Amal has decided to remain in Spain in her joga retreat. I particularly liked the return of Ameena to Lahore to introduce Mark, her British fiance, to her family and friends. Feeling completely ignored and uncomfortable, Mark sees an Ameena whom he neither likes nor recognises as she scolds the housemaid for not ironing her blouse properly or barters with tradesmen she clearly despises.

There's tremendous tenderness in these stories. You don't have to personally experience a culture clash in your relationships to appreciate them. Anyone who has miscarried will weep with the young wife; the tender feelings around babies are visceral; you feel deeply for the young woman whose British partner has suddenly died but must suffer her mother prattling about marriage partners because the whole relationship had been - and must stay - secret. Qureshi is also very good at endings that leave you thinking, not hanging. The only criticism I have are the violent endings to two of the stories - one about making jam and one about the couple who have taken the carping mother on holiday with them. The stories would have worked perfectly without the violence.

Highly recommended .

Unusually good

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simple, somewhat enjoyable and I only say somewhat as they are emotional and you do find yourself feeling sorry for some of the characters within the stories.
lovely reading voice too very soothing. Worth a listen I generally listened to it in traffic to and from work and it made the journey much more enjoyable.
worth a listen.

easy listening

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really enjoyable, some interesting vignettes into the lives of others, which always has something to teach ourselves.

brilliant

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