Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love

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Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love is a collection full of secrets and yearnings, the gaps and silences found so often in misunderstandings and miscommunications. These stories work to fill those gaps, creating found families and belonging, and showing the sides of ourselves others rarely see . . . Qureshi's writing conveys the emotions her characters cannot . . . Each story is tightly written and closely edited, ending at the perfect moment . . . Exploring different relationships - mother and daughter, friendships, young love, spouses - Qureshi pulls apart the emotions surrounding each one, making even the darker narratives relatable and evocative. -- Terri-Jane Dow ― Mslexia

This collection has reminded me how much I love short stories . . . I devoured it cover to cover . . . the whole collection is seriously wise and moving; one I know I'm going to revisit. -- Anna Bonet * Well Read * Huma Qureshi is a writer I know I’ll be reading for years and years and years’ Natasha Lunn, author of Conversations on Love Huma Qureshi writes the inarticulable distances between mothers and daughters, the consuming ache of longing for someone not yet kissed, the invisible, irreparable breaches in friendships or between lovers, with such pitch-perfect precision, such lightness of touch. These are stories of fierce clarity and tenderness - I loved them. In a stunning juxtaposition, Huma Qureshi utilises articulate and evocative language to communicate all the issues and concerns her characters can’t. In a sharp, beautifully executed collection of short stories, we explore the clashes of cultures, generations, and class divides with themes of love, familial relationships, motherhood, friendship, fertility, and death. Qureshi's stories keenly identify the everyday tragedies of feeling profoundly unknown or unheard, of holding secrets and misunderstandings . . . These tales vividly capture the experience of feeling constrained by family expectations, but also of not quite fitting the norms of British culture either . . . Qureshi takes the reader plausibly inside the inner recesses of characters' hearts and minds. Premonition beautifully recalls the intensity of a first crush, developed via a private symphony of glances, before a bewildering first kiss leads to disaster. And she captures how such incidents can, in adulthood, seem insignificant and still life-defining . . . there are so many striking images to relish. -- Holly Williams * Observer *Read this book as a part of our April Bookclub, I was really looking forward to it. It was a hit for some of our members, but not for me, sadly.

In this rich collection of stories, Huma Qureshi shows us the truth, mess and beauty of humans trying - and often failing - to understand each other. Just like love itself, her stories are full of honesty and mystery, pain and hope, and the memories we think we've forgotten, but that still steer our hearts. I'm still thinking about them. And Huma Qureshi is a writer I know I'll be reading for years and years and years. This sort of thing happened every so often when they had been speaking too frequently or for too long, resentment tinting every word they exchanged like the threat of grey rain in cold spring These are stories of fierce clarity and tenderness – I loved them’ LUCY CALDWELL, author of IntimaciesHuma Qureshi writes like a psychotherapist, considering, analysing, explaining, seeking outconflicts, evasions, and discomforts . . . The form suits her: she succeeds in a short space in describing her settings and defining her characters . . . there are notes of optimism that sound from true love; and, as always, amor vincit omnia. - Spectator A breathtaking collection of stories about our most intimate relationships, and the secrets, misunderstandings and silences that haunt them. With beautiful, immersive prose, I felt myself sink into the beauty of the European countryside, where all the stories were set. I experienced sitting on a balcony, sipping rosé wine to the rustle of leaves from trees surrounding my French holiday villa; I experienced roaming the streets of Tuscany, basking in the ambience of their open market filled with vendors selling their vintage wares; I experienced making paper cranes, scattering them around Rome during my spontaneously-planned vacation. A writer, as a good psychologist, needs to know and intuitively feel the essence of the human soul, and here Qureshi does a great job creating realistic personalities, powerful in their simultaneous clarity and complexity. These are stories about children and parents trying to establish an elusive connection between generations, spouses learning the nature of love and marriage, lovers and friends who are losing and finding each other. Every text serves as a reminder that literature can be a mirror on real life, beautiful in all its imperfections. Set across the blossoming English countryside, the stifling Mediterranean, and the bustling cities of London and Lahore, Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love illuminates the parts of ourselves we rarely reveal.

Not only that— i experienced the angst of teenage love all over again; falling in love during the summer, and getting heartbroken by fall; peacefully outgrowing my friendships and leaving them in my past; encountering a past flame, and attaining closure after all these years; falling out of love from a seemingly-perfect marriage; and even the utter joy of childbirth after waiting for so long to conceive.But usually, Qureshi takes the reader plausibly inside the inner recesses of characters’ hearts and minds. Premonition beautifully recalls the intensity of a first crush, developed via “a private symphony of glances”, before a bewildering first kiss leads to disaster. And she captures how such incidents can, in adulthood, seem insignificant and still life-defining.

There is a gentleness to the way Qureshi writes, that is not to say these stories are not full of heartache and filled with fraught emotions, as they are, but the way she sweeps you under with the ease of her storytelling and keeps you reading is something I have come to love about Qureshi's writing. 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 make sense to each other away from home. Considering how everyone extols the virtues of Huma Qureshi's superb writing, as I chose my first book by her, I anticipated an exciting journey. Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love, a collection of short stories by Huma Qureshi, was, to put it mildly, an unimpressive read. It was a mediocre book with a few standout stories and the majority of them leaving me baffled. It does seem that the author tried to hard but there were too many lose strings in several stories which made it a rather confusing one. Set between the blossoming countryside of England, the South of France and Tuscany, and the bustling cities of London and Lahore, Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love shines a light on the parts of ourselves we rarely reveal. This story was originally published in Day One , a weekly literary journal dedicated to short fiction and poetry from emerging writers.Fierce, funny and raw, this unflinchingly honest exploration of heartbreak is so much more than a book about one single break-up These stories are short and bittersweet, they tug at your heart strings. Lots of them centre on the divisions, the rifts, the distance that forms in familial and romantic relationships and friendship. How literally the things we do not say create divides so they're not necessarily always comfortable reads as they made my stomach clench in mild anxiety at the underlying tensions. This really spoke to me. Mothers obsessed with covering up flesh! Talking to boys, even ones you’ve known all your life - controversial. Feeling weird around your white boyfriend’s family even when they’re nice. People still getting married after a few months of knowing each other. It’s all real! And the writer really captures the immensity of these experiences. The more magical stories refuse to bend to expectations, a quality I really liked.