I loved Azhar Abidi’s first novel, Passarola Rising, a historical fable set in eighteenth-century Portugal about a fantastical air voyage by a pair of Brazilian brothers. His latest novel, while just as absorbing and lyrical, is set closer to home, between Karachi in Pakistan and Melbourne (and begs the question of autobiography, as Abidi is Australian of Pakistani heritage). The elegant Bilqis, matriarch of the Khan family, is less than pleased when her only son, Samad, decides to marry an Australian of European descent, Kate, and stay on in Melbourne.

But as Bilqis struggles to accept Samad’s choices, she must also accept that her privileged life in Karachi is coming to an end: it is 1985 and a religious fervosity is taking hold of the nation. At the heart of this novel are the dilemmas of every cross-cultural family and their traditions – how much can we keep, how much must we give away, what can we salvage, what will be lost forever – and the complicated compromises that families must sometimes make to stay together and yet apart.