Playing Games, Huma Qureshi’s fourth book and first novel, could have shared a title with her 2021 short story collection, Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love. Told through the lives of two sisters, Hana and Mira, born two years apart, this poignant and impressionistic book about the often blurred boundaries between life and literature asks what – and why – we hold back from those who know us best.
Hana wants to be a mother but is stuck in a failing marriage. Mira wants to be a writer but is stuck with writer’s block, living in a shitty flatshare. The two sisters’ personalities and life trajectories could not be further apart: one a successful divorce lawyer, the other a university dropout. Their relationship is increasingly fraught, following the death of their mother 11 years ago. They share a birthday, but a lack of understanding widens the space between them. Hana and Mira are “as lost as each other, both wanting things that are out of reach”.
