Broken Threads

‘At times this book feels like vital history, which just happens to read like a great novel. At other times, it reads like a novel that just happens to inform us about great history. The prose is always clear and the characters are unforgettable. One of the best memoirs I've read in years’ SATHNAM SANGHERA ‘Mishal Husain weaves an intricate family web that catches all the hope and optimism, as well as the tragedy and disappointment of the birth of Pakistan and independent India in 1947. With clarity, warmth and profound sympathy, as well as some brilliant archival detective work, she performs a fascinating act of reconstruction of the world that disappeared in Partition. In many ways, Mishal Husain shows us, with so many intricate threads irreparably broken, 1947 has yet to come to an end’ WILLIAM DALRYMPLE ‘This is the most important and accessible book I have ever read about the days leading up to and surrounding the partition of India. I read it as one would a thriller, a page-turner; a fabulous achievement by a skilled writer, packed with facts but floating like a butterfly. I cannot recommend it strongly enough’ JOANNA LUMLEY ‘Spell-binding – a love story and an extraordinary personal journey set against some of the greatest upheavals of the 21st century. A book that is as moving as it is important’ PETER FRANKOPAN ‘If you love Mishal’s broadcasting, you’ll be utterly enchanted by this meticulously researched story of her family set against the backdrop of partition, end of empire and the trauma of upheaval’ JON SOPEL