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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 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, along with 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.

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

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Critic reviews

"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)
All stars
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Such beautifully written, intricate stories, you sympathise and attach to the characters. I like how they varied in plot, some were very dramatic others truly heartbreaking. You dont have to be of the same culture to resonate with each and every story. Very well written and both narrators were amazing

Brilliant

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Fantastic all around, insight into being an outsider and in your own community, family, body and mind. The plight of the second generation and having each foot in the country of your roots and your branches grow in the
country which welcomed you.

Insightful and poignant

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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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I did not have this on my radar till bookclub picked it for our read in December and my word, this collection of beautiful stories broke me and made me feel so I touch with all the characters and their pain.

Beautifully written and performed, this was such a good way to start December

Such a heartbreaking collection

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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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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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One dare not attempt to describe how utterly absorbing and visual the writing is. And the performance is enchanting.

Life described at its most visceral. Fabulous!

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I really enjoyed the selection of short stories, they were most beautifully written. I pictured and felt everything. Both narrators did an excellent job too. My only problem is that I wanted more. The stories finished too soon for me, I'd have liked them to be longer. What happened after the balcony fall? Did the mistress eat the jam scones? Did mother and daughter ever reunite? I think I'm just too curious for these snippets of life type stories, I need a conclusion. It was a book club suggestion and I probably wouldn't have read it otherwise, but I'm glad I did. All the characters were brought to life so vividly and it was easy to immerse myself in their individual stories.

Beautifully written and read

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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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This book, makes me-want to say so much more, to the people around me. If only we all had, the courage to do this on a regular basis. How much more understood and happier, we would all be!

Thought provoking and relevant!

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