Blog tour: The Go-Between

By

Welcome to the blog tour for The Go-Between: A Portrait of Growing Up Between Different Worlds by Osman Yousefzada!

More about the book…

The Go-Between provides a window into the Pakistani/Afghan Pashtun community living in Britain: a closed world in which women can’t leave their homes, where girls can’t be educated after the point of puberty (Osman’s own sisters were taken out of school at the age of eleven), where alternative masculinities are suppressed and where the pursuit of self-expression is forbidden.

In this coming-of-age story set in Birmingham in the 1980s and 1990s, British-born artist and renowned fashion designer, Osman Yousefzada, tells us about his own family living in a red-light district on the wrong side of the tracks. The adult world is seen through Osman's eyes as a child: the divide between the world of men and women, living cheek-by-jowl with other migrant communities. Children have to balance Western school teachings with cultural traditions and female erasure and honour-based violence are committed, even as empowering female friendships prevail.

The stories Osman tells, some fantastical, entertaining and funny, others moving and harrowing, take us from Birmingham to the banks of the river Kabul and the river Indus, and, eventually, to the London of Osman’s teenage years. As Osman weaves in and out of these worlds, struggling with the burdens of racism and family expectations, he is forced to realise it is no longer possible to exist in the spaces ‘in between’.

More about the author…

Osman Yousefzada was born in Birmingham in 1977 to parents who are illiterate in English and their mother tongue. He is a celebrated multi-disciplinary artist and world-famous fashion designer whose work provides a strong social commentary. He studied at SOAS and Central Saint Martins, and went on to do a Masters at Cambridge University. As well as being nominated for various fashion awards, Osman has been awarded the prestigious British Fashion Council NEWGEN award for three consecutive seasons. He has also been nominated for the Annual Designs of the Year Award at the Design Museum, and shortlisted for a Frieze Art Award.

Osman’s fashion shows have taken place across the globe and his art practice has been exhibited internationally, from the Whitechapel Gallery and Lahore Biennale, to Mendes Wood Brussels and Dhaka Art Summit. He has also exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Design Museum London, Ringling Museum in Florida, and Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio. His solo exhibition, ‘Being Somewhere Else’, which focused on the experience of migration, took place at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham in 2018. In 2021, Osman’s public installation covered the Selfridges Building in Birmingham. For the summer of 2022, Osman has been commissioned by the British Council as the lead multidisciplinary artist for the 75- year programming for Pakistani independence. This commission will involve a temporary architectural structure in London and a series of interactive activities in and around the public installation, with an opportunity to engage young people to curate events.

Osman also curates a collaborative journal, The Collective, a cross-disciplinary publication featuring artists, writers and other creatives. The Osman fashion label is sold internationally and is worn by celebrities including Beyoncé, Lupita Nyong’o, Thandiwe Newton, Gwen Stefani, Emma Watson, Freida Pinto and many more. Osman proudly represents the empowerment of women, sustainability, diversity, and inclusivity.

For more information, please see: www.osmanstudio.com/About

My impressions…

How other cultures live and integrate (or not) in the community of their adoptive countries is a topic that has always intrigued me. Ultimately, Osman Yousefzada’s story is a story of a success. The stories he tells, however, can be somewhat difficult to read if you’re peeping into a world that is completely unfamiliar to you. Difficult, yes, but nevertheless worth it. Oh. So. Worth. It.

Three words to describe it. Poignant. Complex. Eye-opening.

Do I like the cover? I do, it’s the right combination of modern and traditional.

Have I read any other books by the same author? This is Yousefzada’s first book and it encouraged me to go and browse his website and his further work.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Booknet: a new platform for authors and readers

By
Image
‘Ooooh, what is Booknet ?’ I hear you ask… Booknet is a popular literary social media network, self-publishing platform, and Bookscription eBook sales model, all of which is being introduced to the UK following rapid growth in Latin America and Eastern Europe since 2015. How does it work? Booknet is both a successful literary self-publishing platform and a social network, founded by Ukrainian entrepreneurs in 2015. Booknet has gained significant traction in countries such as Ukraine, Russia (the Russian division was sold in the spring of 2022 because of the war between Ukraine and Russia), as well as Latin America. The company is now actively investing resources into the development of its English-language version. Authors can either publish their books with free access by readers, or sell them after obtaining commercial status through the platform. Booknet provides free advertising for eBooks sold by their authors on the platform. Booknet’s distinctive features (apart from being a pop...
Read more

Book review: She’s Never Coming Back

By
Image
By Hans Koppel Translated by Kari Dickson Published by Sphere It is safe to say that my choice of reading material is not usually truculent. That’s why I surprised myself when I decided to read a novel whose front cover prominently displays a quote describing it as a ‘terrifying crime novel’. I started to read expecting the worse and - it being impossible to put the book down - a few hours later I was trying to understand what had hit me. Let’s be clear: I loved this book and I’m grateful to Sphere for publishing this Swedish novel by author Karl Petter Lidbeck who, being a children’s literature author, decided to have it published under the pen name of Hans Koppel. I can see why he doesn’t want to have the two genres mixing on the bookshelves! The plot is simple enough: one day after work, Ylva does not return home. When she hasn’t returned 24 hours later, her husband Mike starts to worry and calls the police. Ylva seems to have disappeared without a trace and, month after month, Mike...
Read more

“Italy in books” - reading challenge 2011

By
Image
Why this challenge? This year I’ve decided to host a reading challenge because I think that they are a brilliant idea. They help to make reading a more collective experience and are a great way to find out more about any particular author / genre / topic and get to know about books you might never have come across. I chose this topic because - as an Italian who has been living abroad for many years now - I feel the need to learn more about my home country and I’m curious to see the difference between the way it is portrayed by native Italians and others. The details of the challenge The challenge will run from January, 1st 2011 to December, 31st 2011 . The aim of the challenge is to read at least 12 books that are set in Italy. Whether written by Italian authors or not, it doesn’t matter. They don’t have to be set exclusively in Italy but this country needs to play a significant role in the book. The challenge can include non-fiction books about Italy. You can also review Italian lea...
Read more