Punglish

One Boy · Two Worlds · One Identity

A warm, funny novel of growing up between England and Pakistan in the 1970s and 80s.

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Paperback & Kindle: November 2026 · Hardback Dust Jacket Edition: Ramadan 2027

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About the book

Sussex, the 1970s to now. Osman grows up in a house that is never quiet for long: the Elvis Uncles arguing over cricket scores long after the game has ended, the kitchen alive with the crackle of frying namak paray, two languages spoken in the same sentence. Years later, at a family wedding, he finds himself still adding it all up, and discovering it comes to more than he expected.

Funny, warm and quietly sharp, Punglish follows one boy across two decades and two countries, and asks what it costs, and what it gives, to belong to both.

Belonging · Migration · Faith · Family · Comedy · The 1970s–80s

An extract

They had arrived in the middle of the Easter holidays, which gave the first days a loose, unscheduled quality that suited a family finding its feet in a new house. There was no school to report to, no routine yet to obey. There was only the day itself, and what they decided to do with it.

That first proper morning, they had gone out together, the four of them, to find the shops and learn the shape of the estate. Mother bought what the kitchen needed. Father bought a newspaper he didn’t especially want, simply for the pleasure of having somewhere to buy one. Osman and Noor were permitted, after some negotiation, one sweet each from a jar behind the counter, and ate them with the seriousness children bring to a sweet that has been properly earned.

from Chapter One, ‘Arrival’