posted on 29 Jan 2024

Seven Days by Rebeka Shaid

Although it was a very long time ago, I remember that being sixteen was fraught with anxieties and impatience for proper grown up life to begin. Becoming more aware of one’s parents frailties is part of this - alongside a keen self consciousness and the pressure to have romantic relationships. This author takes us into the heads of two young people living in Bristol who have already experienced some difficult stuff and are struggling to make sense of what is on the horizon. In just seven days they realise that they have strong feelings for one another.

Noori is grieving for her Rumi-loving cousin Munazzah, who died in a freak incident in a small Punjabi village eight months before. She is also fed up with her home life and particularly angry with her dad. She is planning a year studying in Pakistan to reinvent herself.

Aamir defines himself as ‘being skint and a loser’, and has left his home with few personal possessions. As the story opens we learn that he has fallen out with his very traditional religious father since the unexpected recent death of his mother. He has run away from home, been badly mugged and is thinking about going to stay with his elder brother, Bilal and his wife.

The two protagonists have a dramatic first meeting on a bench in the park when Noori opens with a fierce anti-Dad rant. She is impressed that Aamir is reading a book of Rumi poetry, the same edition that had belonged to Munazzah, and sees this as a significant sign, ‘a moment of synchronicity.’ 

She interrogates him about his background which he finds quite intrusive and intimidating at first. We learn a lot about the pair of them very quickly - she is outgoing, confident and chatty whereas he is private and wary. Over the next couple of days their paths cross again and they both admit to themselves that they have a strange connection. Noori’s close friend Mai is not so happy about the way in which Aamir is becoming involved in her life, especially when she has to collude in a lie about him being a distant cousin to explain him to Noori’s parents.

The two realise that they are both trying to come to terms with grief alongside trying to leave their childhood constraints behind. The novel shifts between each one as, despite their many differences, they reflect on their feelings and start to have profound and personal conversations:

‘ She was this bright bulb, and he was a shady moth, drawn towards its light and warmth.’

This impressive novel manages to explore complex emotions and family dynamics. It even includes quite a lot of historical information about the partition of India in 1947 and how it affected their two families. The two young people get intensely heated about poetry, death, culture, politics and religion during their stormy week together - such a lot of ground to cover in a short time.

I will leave you to guess how they resolve their difficulties and whether they have enough in common to stay friends or to begin a romantic relationship.

Available now from Walker Books, you will be able to get a copy from your local independent bookshop - who will be happy to order it for you if they don’t have a copy on their shelves.

 

Karen Argent

January 2024