There are only two tragedies in life. One is not getting your heart's desire - and the other? Getting it. Fourteen-year-old Lucky Khalil has a destiny – worse than a destiny, he has a dream. He dreams that one day, he will win the World Cup for England . It torments him, because it tastes real, because when he wakes he weeps with disappointment that it is just a dream. Meanwhile, Lucky’s mother Delphine seems to have had all her dreams come true, but feels trapped in her apparently perfect marriage. She fantasizes about rediscovering the freedom of her youth, but rekindling a relationship with her maverick father-in-law, Zaki, can only end in disaster. Zaki, a charming gambler who loved and lost Delphine long before she married his successful son, feels equally trapped in the corner shop he has run for years. He wonders if the time has come to abandon his responsibilities, to try once more to achieve his own dreams.
As each of the Khalils discovers in Roopa Farooki’s beautifully written and richly layered tale, the closer one's dreams become, the easier it is to lose sight of what really matters.
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“Farooki's characters are convincingly complex… While her first novel, Bitter Sweets, was called "enjoyably breezy" (New York Times), this work has a depth to it that requires more substantial adjectives. Highly recommended.” –Library Journal
“A complex exploration of the ever-changing nature of wants and desires and the consequences of achieving one’s dreams, Farooki’s tale eschews easy answers for the complex, appealing characters that people its pages.” –Booklist
"A winner... [the] characters are imperfect yet loveable, full of life but confused, annoying in their own ways while tremendously charming. One can’t help but feel like a confidant as family crises, friction, achievements, disappointments, and realizations unfold.... [This] comic and poignant novel conjures questions that come back to tease and haunt the reader." --India Currents magazine
Roopa Farooki was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and brought up in London. She graduated from New College, Oxford in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and worked in advertising before writing fiction full time. Roopa now lives in Southeast England and Southwest France with her husband and two young sons, and teaches creative writing at the Canterbury Christ Chuch University masters program.
Roopa Farooki