A Small Fortune

Rosie Dastgir

Quercus, 400 pages,R450

In an entertaining debut novel that explores the lives of an extended Pakistani family, Harris, the presumed patriarch of his family in both England and Pakistan, has unexpectedly received a “small fortune”. As a devout Muslim, Harris views this sum as a “burden of riches” that he must unload on someone else. But deciding which relative to give it to proves to be a burden on its own, and soon he is caught in a tricky web of familial debt and obligation on two sides of the world.