Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love

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A breathtaking collection of stories about our most intimate relationships, and the secrets, misunderstandings and silences that haunt them. From the author of the award-winning Saltwater comes a beautifully told love story set across England, France and Spain.

In the second tale, Summer, a mother-daughter argument over cultural influences and differences in viewpoint takes on complexity and has a depressing conclusion. It had the potential to be promising, but it ended so frantically that I had difficulties comprehending it. Fierce, funny and raw, this unflinchingly honest exploration of heartbreak is so much more than a book about one single break-up 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.Deliciously complex, and vivid in detail— this short story collection presents the unspoken dynamics of intimate relationships between different, oh-so-flawed people. A series of beautifully written short stories examining the pent-up frustrations and the everyday betrayals that even our closest relationships can cause. -- Stylist

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 * I admired Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love. Qureshi writes with courage and in these extraordinary stories capture the shame and loneliness of non-belonging and the challenge of self-acceptance. -- Ingrid Persaud, author of Love After Love 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. The writing is easy to get into, almost lyrical, and I enjoy that. I also appreciate how each story examines the different ways love can turn sour in our relationships— be it platonic, romantic, friendship, etc. Even how grief, loss, and resentment can taint love is also well explored.All those experiences— the pain and the beauty of it all, make me appreciate even more the complexities of the lives we live, and how amazing it is when our tangents come to intersect.

Huma Qureshi is a writer I know I'll be reading for years and years and years' Natasha Lunn, author of Conversations on Love However, I do recognise that these stories may be written semi autobiographical hence are authentic to the author and her experiences and feelings, so these stories will be relatable to some people, I just didn't enjoy them. 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. 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 ― ObserverWhat can I do?’ she asked. You can fight, I thought , you can fight for your daughters. But then again, who was I to speak of such things 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. What annoyed me a bit though is how it seems most of the stories had a [Pakistani] Muslim woman with white man trope. This story was originally published in Day One , a weekly literary journal dedicated to short fiction and poetry from emerging writers.

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. Waterlogged explores the predicament of every woman who, upon entering the union of marriage and motherhood, feels lost and struggles to regain her identity while feeling pinched by her husband's emotional indifference. Every aspect of her body or personality was up for inspection: too big, too small, too available, too hidden, too much, not enough.” 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.

Huma 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. -- Brian Martin * Spectator * 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 understand each other away from home. 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. A luscious debut . . Qureshi is a dab hand at yanking the rug out from under the reader. Her immersive, poignant stories - written mostly in understated prose - often have a sting in the tale . . I fell for this lyrical, moving collection and the woozy intensity that infuses many of its stories. Qureshi creates gripping plotlines and vividly drawn characters and - most importantly - she is a writer with something to say. - i