Perfectly Nice Neighbors

April 1, 2023

Salma Khatun is excited to move her Bangladeshi family into a UK suburban development called Blenheim until she spots a white neighbor yanking up the antiracist sign her son has placed in the front yard. She repositions the sign in the window, which gets dabbed over with paint. The stage is thus set for confrontation in this follow-up to Take It Back, a Guardian and Telegraph thriller of the year. Prepub Alert.

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July 1, 2023
When the Bangladeshi Khatun family moves to a new London suburb, an incident with their white next-door neighbors escalates into tragedy and catastrophe. Welcome to Blenheim: There are homes with perfect lawns, "neat streets and perfectly nice neighbors." Despite financial difficulties in the wake of the pandemic, Salma and Bilal Khatun have moved there out of concern for their 18-year-old son, Zain, who's gotten into trouble at school. At a May Day barbecue they're invited to in their first week, there are undertones of discomfort in the words of their mostly white neighbors, but, exhaustingly, that's nothing unexpected--but then Salma sees her next-door neighbor Tom Hutton deliberately knock over the Black Lives Matter banner they've displayed in their yard. She brings it inside and hangs it in the window--only to find the next morning that the pane has been painted over. When she confronts Tom and his pregnant wife, Willa, about the vandalism, things quickly get out of hand, and Zain films the confrontation. Of course, the recording ends up on Twitter, leading to Tom's being fired and Salma's dog being stolen. Even a burgeoning friendship between Zain and Jamie Hutton can't mend the rift, and soon, a second confrontation between the two families gets physical. Trapped in a spiral of pain and resentment, and spurred on by social media and the political climate, soon one of them will be on trial for attempted murder, and all their lives will be forever altered. While thrillers can certainly offer social commentary, there is little "thrill" to be had in this novel. Instead, it's a gritty, uncomfortable story about the ravages of racism. One cannot remain passive in the face of this novel, and the ending lets no one off the hook.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2023
Salma Khatun and her family needed a change, and relocating to London's safe, quiet suburbs seems like a good plan. The subdivision is full of cookie-cutter homes, but the neighbors seem friendly--until next-door neighbor Tom Hutton knocks a Black Lives Matter banner out of the Khatun's garden. Salma sees it happen, but she hangs the banner in their window. The next morning, the window is covered in paint, obscuring the banner, and she's sure that Tom is the culprit. Tom insists that he's enforcing the subdivision's rules against signage, but Salma notices that Tom isn't concerned with their white neighbors who have small banners or signs outside their homes. This confrontation kicks off a series of increasingly disturbing events, and as Tom's behavior becomes more threatening, the Khatuns fear for their safety--and their lives. Abdullah (Next of Kin, 2021) ratchets up the suspense throughout. Each new act of violence or harassment is more twisted than the last, culminating in a final-act twist that will leave readers gasping. Fans of domestic-suspense novels by Alyssa Cole and Louise Candlish will be enthralled.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 9, 2023
Abdullah (Next of Kin) steeps this excellent standalone in the racial tensions of suburban England. Bangladeshis Salma and Bilal Khatun have moved to the suburbs from London with their teenage son, Zain, hoping for a new start after the failure of Bilal’s restaurant and Zain’s expulsion from school. The appeal of “neat streets and perfectly nice neighbors” has overpowered concerns that the family’s business setbacks might make the purchase of a new home financially risky, but Salma remains trepidatious. Her misgivings are only magnified when their white neighbors, the Huttons, reveal themselves as bigots: Salma witnesses Tom Hutton deliberately knock down a Black Lives Matter banner Zain displayed on the Khatun’s house, and suspects that Tom painted over one of her windows after she hung the banner there. Tom denies the vandalism, Zain films a confrontation between him and Salma, and tensions between the two families escalate, leading to violence and attempted murder charges. Abdullah dots the narrative with a few surprises, but plot twists are secondary to her unsparing depiction of racial prejudice, which sets this apart from standard trouble-in-the-suburbs thrillers. Readers will have a tough time letting go of this one. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary.