It was the glitziest party I had ever been to: the V&A Museum lit up at night, free-flowing champagne and just the right dose of celebrity guests. I was newly published in 2019 and the HarperCollins Summer Party felt like the Oscars of literature. The biggest names in publishing were drinking and chatting on the lawn. In fact, an Oscar winner or two, among them Eddie Redmayne, have been known to come along.
Salma Khatun is hopeful about Blenheim, the suburban development into which she, her husband and their son have just moved. The Bangladeshi family needs a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like just the place. Soon after they move in, Salma spots her white neighbor, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in the front garden. Avoiding confrontation, Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window. But the next morning, she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint. When she does speak to Tom, battle lines are drawn between the two families. As racial and social tensions escalate and the stakes rise, it’s clear that a reckoning is coming…and someone is going to get hurt.