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Broken Threads

My Family from Empire to Independence
By Mishal Husain
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Brief Description
A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARDS A TABLET BOOK OF THE YEAR 'One of the best memoirs I've read in years’ — SATHNAM SANGHERA ‘Beautifully written, emotional and deeply personal, yet universal … One can't help but be moved by... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$4299
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A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARDS

A TABLET BOOK OF THE YEAR

'One of the best memoirs I've read in years’ — SATHNAM SANGHERA

‘Beautifully written, emotional and deeply personal, yet universal … One can't help but be moved by this story of upheaval and transformation’ — SADIQ KHAN

An extraordinary family memoir from acclaimed newsreader and journalist, Mishal Husain, uncovering the story of her grandparents' lives amidst empire, political upheaval and partition.

‘I witnessed the dwindling glow of the British Empire. I saw small men entrusted with great jobs, playing with the destiny of millions’

The lives of Mishal Husain’s grandparents changed forever in 1947, as the new nation states of India and Pakistan were born. For years she had a partial story, a patchwork of memories and anecdotes: hurried departures, lucky escapes from violence and homes never seen again.

Decades later, the fragment of an old sari sent Mishal on a journey through time, using letters, diaries, memoirs and audio tapes to trace four lives shaped by the Raj, a world war, independence and partition.

Mumtaz rejects the marriage arranged for him as he forges a life with Mary, a devout Catholic from an Anglo-Indian family, while Tahirah and Shahid watch the politics of pre-partition Delhi unfold at close quarters. As freedom comes, bonds fray and communities are divided, leaving two couples to forge new identities, while never forgetting the shared heritage of the past.

‘Husain has written an arresting family memoir … her explanation of partition is more level-headed than that of many professional historians’ — THE TIMES

‘A spectacular achievement. It is an incisive and carefully researched historical account, and as moving and true a personal narrative’ — GUARDIAN

'[Husain] has managed to make such a complex story so accessible' — OBSERVER

‘I was so moved by this stirring and deeply moving account that is at once a love story as well as a chronicle of one of the most cataclysmic events in South Asia’ — BARKHA DUTT

'Like silks in the precious fragment of the heirloom sari of its title, Broken Threads is woven from rich sources. It is a beautiful book, informed and informative, cool and factual, poetic and elegiac' — FINANCIAL TIMES

‘A deeply engrossing book … I was completely gripped by it’ — INDIA KNIGHT

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780008531690

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 06 June 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Fourth Estate Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 27.0mm

Width: 135.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 320g

Pages: 336

Collections

Best Sellers at Book Hero Biography & Memoir History & Archaeology History & Military In Stock Books Journals Military History Mishal Husain Non-Fiction Political Biographies Religion & Spirituality Stationery

About the Author

Mishal Husain is one of the presenters of BBC Radio 4's influential Today programme and the television news on BBC One. Her work has taken her from Davos to Rohingya refugee camps and from interviewing Prime Ministers to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Mishal has been named by the Sunday Times as one of the 500 most influential people in Britain. Born in the UK in 1973, she grew up in the Middle East and was later educated at Cambridge University, where she read law.

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