Nadiya Hussain - The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters

Over 14 million people tuned in to see NADIYAwin 2015’s Great British Bake Off . Since then she has captured the heart of the nation. A columnist for The Times and Essentials , Nadiya is also a regular reporter for The One Show and presented a two-part series, The Chronicles of Nadiya, on BBC One . She is the author of Nadiya’s Kitchen (Michael Joseph), Bake Me a Story (Hodder) and has been named as one of the top five most influential Asians in the UK.

Copyright Copyright Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen About the Publisher

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019

Copyright © Nadiya Hussain 2019

Nadiya Hussain asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © January 2019 ISBN: 9780008192327

‘I want to be an archaeologist,’ I said, ‘You can’t be an archaeologist, your parents are not rich enough, it will be a miracle if you make it to university.’ I didn’t become an archaeologist or go to university. I did something else. I remembered her words and followed every dream. Unkind words bloom the unlikeliest of passions. This is dedicated to the dreamer in you.

Contents

Cover

Abou the Author Over 14 million people tuned in to see NADIYA win 2015’s Great British Bake Off . Since then she has captured the heart of the nation. A columnist for The Times and Essentials , Nadiya is also a regular reporter for The One Show and presented a two-part series, The Chronicles of Nadiya, on BBC One . She is the author of Nadiya’s Kitchen (Michael Joseph), Bake Me a Story (Hodder) and has been named as one of the top five most influential Asians in the UK.

Title Page

Copyright Copyright Copyright Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen About the Publisher An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019 Copyright © Nadiya Hussain 2019 Nadiya Hussain asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Ebook Edition © January 2019 ISBN: 9780008192327

Dedication ‘I want to be an archaeologist,’ I said, ‘You can’t be an archaeologist, your parents are not rich enough, it will be a miracle if you make it to university.’ I didn’t become an archaeologist or go to university. I did something else. I remembered her words and followed every dream. Unkind words bloom the unlikeliest of passions. This is dedicated to the dreamer in you.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

About the Publisher

Chapter One

Farah liked bustling around. She was perpetually busy when not at her job; her hands at work on a curry, washing clothes, fluffing pillows and inspecting areas of her now smaller home. At least it’s easier to manage. She was going to be positive. She paused to try and listen for what Mustafa might be doing upstairs. Maybe he was still lying in bed. It was ten o’clock in the morning but his sleeping habits were never predictable any more. Or perhaps he was just looking out of the window, like he’d taken to doing. There was a time when she’d have asked what he was thinking. Now she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to know.

He came downstairs, managing to grunt a good morning as he opened the fridge.

‘Why is it stacked with so much stuff?’ he asked.

Farah was spraying Pledge on to the coffee table, wiping it down with a cloth.

‘For the sandwiches I’m making for Mae’s party later,’ she replied.

His brows furrowed as he snapped: ‘Where’s the mango juice?’

Farah swept into the kitchen and looked inside the fridge with him. ‘It must’ve been finished.’

He slammed the door shut and she jumped. ‘For God’s sake. You have the thing heaving with stuff for Mae but no mango juice.’

She folded her arms and clenched her jaw, looking up at him. Her husband was a stranger to her in these moments, because, before the accident, in all the years they’d been married, he’d never lost his temper with her, or anyone for that matter. It hadn’t yet failed to surprise her when his mood took a turn. He opened the fridge door once more and slammed it shut again. His face was enraged as he glowered at her but she didn’t move an inch. She waited. He stood there for a few more moments before thundering out of the room and she heard him slam the front door behind him.

Farah took a deep breath, because the last thing she needed was increased blood pressure. My husband is alive . She repeated this to herself every time she thought of him lying in his coma after the car accident. He had been punished enough for his mistake. Mustafa had crashed his car after finding out that her brother Jay had lost all of the money he was supposed to be investing in their business and now here they were, living with the consequences of Mustafa’s ongoing medication. The doctors had said it’d affect his moods – to be careful of him falling into a kind of depression, but Farah couldn’t quite separate the man from the drugs. Aside from that, this little flat wasn’t theirs. She missed the open spaces of their five-bedroom semi-detached place. Farah liked having a guest room in case one of her sisters wanted to spend the night, or they had family or friends visiting. She took comfort from the idea that there was another room that would make the perfect nursery… but she had to let go of that dream anyway. Looking around the small living room, the light wood laminate flooring, wallpaper they couldn’t afford to change and paint instead – apart from her parents, who had wallpaper now anyway? – she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and opened them again. Still, there were things to be grateful for – being alive was one of them.