Good Intentions is a magnificent and messy love story that broke my heart. Bittersweet and tender, Ali writes about modern day relationships with such compassion. This is a novel for anyone who has ever known what it is to be conflicted in falling in love, feeling the expectations of our families but also ourselves; it is for anyone who has ever felt their heart breaking under the weight of it all' Huma Qureshi, author of How We Met Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures This book had drama, and a lot of it. Relationship dynamics are hard, and Kasim Ali emphasized this throughout the book, giving the reader different situations that feel so human and real that just make you want to stay for the ride. Kasim Ali: I guess, before I was just writing to write. There was no idea of an audience, that’s maybe what’s crippling me since. The idea that there is an expectation, which is why I’m really glad that I wrote my second book before I sold Good Intentions.

Good Intentions" follows the story of the relationship between Nur, a young British-Pakistani man, and Yasmin, a young British-Sudanese woman. Nur and Yasmina are in love. They've been together for four happy years. But Nur's parents don't know that Yasmina exists. It delves into their relationship, racism in the community and the familial ties. There’s no ironic distance between the author and the protagonists, and the lengthy passages of dialogue feel like eavesdropping on a low-level argument between a couple at the next restaurant table. The general impression is that, with solid jobs and homes out of reach, these earnest millennials have vastly over-invested in relationships, and that carries its own poignancy.' The Financial Times Throughout this book, we follow the life of Nur, as he takes his course of life through family status, relationship status, and finding out his overall identity. Scared to tell his parents about a girlfriend, Nur tries to balance his family life with his love life. At a certain point, the two worlds collide, and Nur now doesn't know where to go. I wanted, too, to ask questions that I felt weren’t being asked. Of parents’ expectations of their children, of the way my culture can judge, of the way it can often feed into our very worst traits. I strove for authenticity above all. Hannah Westland, publisher of the literary imprint Serpent’s Tail, says she’s not always confident that there’s a market for fiction written by young men. “If a really good novel by a male writer lands on my desk, I do genuinely say to myself, this will be more difficult to publish.” She believes that the “paths to success” are narrower because there are fewer prizes open to men, fewer magazines that will cover male authors, and fewer media figures willing to champion them – in the way that, for example, Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes have championed female authors on their podcasts.I knew this was gonna be thought provoking and inspire a lot of discussions but damnnn. Shoutout to Kasim Ali though because I loved the writing style in regards to the inner monologues, self reflections and how he writes friendships. As someone who also has anxiety I don’t feel like I’ve ever read it’s symptoms and how it impacts relationships as accurate as in this book. That being said it’s not necessarily Muslim rep and I don’t think it was meant to be.

On the surface Good Intentions is a poignant romance about the cultural barriers that stand in the way of two young people pursuing an honest relationship. Yet beneath there is a cautionary tale about what happens when you get so caught up in your own vulnerability that you forget your responsibility to others.' The Sunday Times Kasim Ali: I grew up in an environment where I wasn’t able to express emotion otherwise I’d get taken the piss out of, right? Called ‘gay’ or ‘a girl’ or whatever. And then I’d internalise those things as insults, and stop doing the things I wanted to that led to people calling me those insults. Like my characters, I am a Muslim who doesn’t pray as often as he should but still considers himself to be a Muslim. My family are Muslims like this. My friends are Muslims like this. We are not people who find Islam restrictive and walk away from it; we find ourselves in it. It will always be important to me to represent that in the work I create, not only because it means others like me can see themselves but also so that non-Muslims can see people like us, too. Lucie Shorthouse, Juliette Motamed, Sarah Kameela Impey and Faith Omole in We Are Lady Parts (Photo: Laura Radford/Channel 4)This book was phenomenal. Absolutely brilliant. A philosophical, modern-day classic debut, this novel includes absolutely everything that forms a well-made novel.

He does this with many topics, one being race, and the abhorrences People of Color and non-whites have to go through in this crude world. This was a common thread throughout the book but wasn't something that felt overly redundant. If we stop expecting the big male novelists of the 2020s to look like updated big male novelists of the 1980s, there are signs of an exciting new era of fiction by young men. This spring saw the publication of Caleb Azumh Nelson’s Open Water, while in the past year there have been critically acclaimed books from Gabriel Krauze, Sunjeev Sahota and Chris Power. Writers such as Nikesh Shukla, Luke Kennard, James Scudamore and Michael Donkor are hitting their stride, while Garth Greenwell, Brandon Taylor, Bryan Washington and Paul Mendez are producing powerful fiction about queer desire. There are also poets such as Sam Riviere and Will Burns, whose debut novels are expected later this year. And in 2022, 4th Estate’s lead debut is Good Intentions by Kasim Ali, bought as part of a six-figure, two-book deal. Honesty makes us trust the story, trust the characters and form a bond. We adore Nur like we might a younger brother: at times we empathise, want to take him in a warm embrace, and at other times we would rather give him a damn good throttle. Which is perhaps why many women feel suspicious that the “where are all the men?” conversation too often goes hand-in-hand with the question: is the novel dead? Byers says there is certainly an authority attached to being a man in his profession. In interviews and talks, he is constantly invited to grandstand on politics or the craft of fiction in a way that his female contemporaries aren’t. Too often, he says, women are expected to write about and discuss their personal lives. When Riz Ahmed gave a speech in Parliament in 2017 about Muslim representation on screen, I had hoped it might be the turning point.

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I read The Santanic Verses despite my mum’s anger (because the book is against Islam) and I was angry he did that because, along with the obvious, he’s a very good writer. So yeah, I guess it comes from being frustrated that I can only think of those two. There is something of a Sally Rooney vibe to this story about twentysomethings navigating adult waters (the snappy dialogue, the conflicted emotions, the relationship dramas) . . . This timely, savvy novel is recommended." This is a complex, tender and bittersweet love story that interrogates familial obligation, religion, race, what it means to be “good”– and specifically, what it means to be “good” to each other.' The Skinny Good Intentions is so absorbing, compelling and beautifully written. Its ending brought me close to tears – what an incredibly assured debut. I can't wait to see what Kasim Ali writes next’ Beth O’Leary, author of The Flatshare One of the most eagerly awaited debuts of 2022 . . . Exploring race, romance, and mental health problems with disarming candor . . . [ Good Intentions] is a rather clever novel about vulnerability and victimhood that subtly subverts the reader's expectations.”