“The Family Tree” by Sairish Hussain — an epic tale that will break and warm your heart
(spoiler-free)
As the name suggests, ‘The Family Tree’ is a story of a family. The book follows three members of a close-knit British-Pakistani family living in the north of England and spans around twenty five years. It is gently thought-provoking and, despite dealing with tragic events and complex emotions, it does so without being difficult to read. Somehow, ‘The Family Tree’ even feels like a family; the reader is so connected to the characters that we excuse their faults and are blind to their failings and just want the best for them in the end.
The book follows Amjad and his son and daughter Saahil and Zahra as they navigate life after the loss of Amjad’s wife and the children's mother and as they cope with a devastating attack that changes the trajectory of each of their lives forever.
As much as I loved this book (or perhaps because of that), I initially struggled to pinpoint what exactly I enjoyed so much about it. For inspiration, I watched an interview with Sairish Hussain as part of Bradford Literary Festival. If it wasn’t already evident from her writing, Sairish Hussain’s passion for books and her belief in the power of writing is clear when listening to her speak.
As part of that interview about ‘The Family Tree’, she mentions that a reader had remarked to her that, during the scenes set in mosques, they were constantly waiting for the character to become radicalised. Sairish said this was completely intentional. It was only when Sairish vocalised this that I realised that I had also been subliminally expecting a radicalisation storyline. It struck me how enormously sad it was that we have been conditioned to associate a place of such peace with violence and radicalisation. It is also an indication of the underrepresentation of the Islamic faith generally in the media, and of the overly amplified rhetoric of Islamic radicalisation.
The author has made it clear in a separate interview that she neither wanted this book to be “a ‘positive’ portrayal of British Muslims” nor a “story that screamed “LOOK HOW NORMAL WE ARE””. It is no surprise then that ‘The Family Tree’ has a quotidian quality, and is very much about the everyday lives of the characters. Many of the passages that stuck with me the most were ones that commented on daily struggles, relationships and how they change over time.
I was surprised at how refreshing it was to read a book set in the north of England. I didn’t realise how underrepresented the north was as a setting until I found myself almost surprised to see it feature in ‘The Family Tree’. The book is set in a northern English city (although Bradford is not mentioned by name until close to the end) and the setting is not just a fact that is fleetingly mentioned, it permeates the story and is interwoven with some of the book’s main themes.
The Sharif family are not poor, exactly. Their situation can be best summed up by the following remark from the third party narrator:
“Holidays to America were a luxury Abbu had never even comprehended. People like him didn’t do things like that. He just went to the warehouse in the mornings and came home at night.”
As well as being a book about British Muslims and first and second generation immigrants, the book is also about a working class family in the north of England. There is a cross-sectionality in that that is rarely found in the stories we read. We see this most when Zahra considers applying for a graduate programme in London, her confidence faltering as she doubts that she would get a place amongst Oxbridge graduates and those well-off and well-connected enough to complete one unpaid internship after another.
There is also a sense of children outgrowing their parents and dreams daring to grow bigger with each generation — built upon the foundations laid by their parents and their parents’ parents. In his twenty one year old youth, being naive and all-knowing in equal measures, Saahil cannot comprehend how his father can be satisfied with what seems to Saahil like so little.
“What does he want? Saahil often wondered, as he watched his dad plodding around the house. What would make him really happy? Surely it wasn’t just the fork-lift driver promotion Abbu talked about.
Hussain captures the ill-informed condescension of a twenty one year old student perfectly, and we sense that as Saahil grows older he will come to understand that what makes his father happy is simply being surrounded by family. Family values are where this story starts and where it ends.
The combination of writing that is effortless but thoughtful, multi-dimensional characters and a multi-generational story meant that the minute I finished this book, I felt the need to recommend it to everyone I know. Within the pages of this book, Hussain crafts a home and we feel like a part of the Sharif family as we mourn, worry and celebrate alongside them.
