The Go-Between

'A beautifully observed and funny book' - Guardian 'I don't think I properly understood the true nature of multiculturalism before reading Osman Yousefzada's The Go-Between. Only really good writing can bring alive the truth, the colour, the reality and the meaning of an experience like Osman's. And he really is a good writer. Through his eyes, as he moves from boyhood to adolescence, one gets such a palpable sense of worlds and cultures that seem so eternally incompatible and yet which somehow manage to co-exist, albeit uneasily and sometimes at a real cost for those trapped in the no man's land between the front lines of each. I read with such pleasure, terror, amusement, admiration and fascination - it is surely one of the great childhood memoirs of our times.' - Stephen Fry 'Osman's compelling and humane memoir shines light into a hidden world I didn't realise existed down the road from me. It's an essential book that will help you understand multiculturalism in all its complexities' - Sathnam Sanghera 'What Elena Ferrante does for Italy, Yousefzada's The Go-Between does for Immigrant Britain' - Dazed 'Yousefzada's funny and fascinating story of moving between two cultures . . . this memoir is a welcome exploration of time and place' - Stylist 'A portrait of the artist as a young man in a strictly religious immigrant community. Its colourful, compulsively readable evocation of childhood clashes between faith and self, family and freedom, is profoundly moving and beautifully wrought. Yousefzada's journey from the home of an illiterate seamstress, shadowed by domestic violence, is extraordinary to witness. This debut is both an essential meditation on identity, and a transcendently great story' - Katie Roiphe 'Yousefzada is a gifted storyteller who writes with such tender care' - Mona Arshi