The debut novel Good People by Patmeena Sabit centres on the Sharaf family, an Afgam family living in the USA. The parents, Rhamat and Maryam, grew up in Afganistan but their children were born in America. The action revolves around the two older children, son Omer and daughter Zorah.
The Sharafs are seen as good people by others in the Afgan community, their neighbours and the teachers at the local schools although some envy Sharaf’s success as a businessman and the family’s move to a big house in Riverside, Virginia.
After years of being a model daughter, Zorah changes suddenly in high school. Her grades drop and she takes up with a boyfriend. All sorts of efforts are made to return Zorah to her family and to her former high performance at school. Then her body is found in a car at the bottom of a canal.
In Good People, Patmeena Sabit has done something quite different from most other mystery novels. At no point do we learn directly about Zorah or other members of her immediate family. Instead, the novel takes the form of interview transcripts and media reports about the family and the investigation into Zorah’s death.
The epistolary nature of the novel works to highlight the wide-ranging repercussions of the tragedy as well as the range of views others hold about what happened. The various friends, neighbours, school personnel, newspaper reporters, attorneys, expert witnesses, eyewitnesses and the boyfriend himself become characters in themselves through their multiple reports.
Sabit has made it easy to follow the multiple characters by including their name and relationship to the Sharaf family above each report. Most reports run for only one or two pages. The brevity means that this book is easy to put down and take up again.
Good People presents a fascinating exposition of the clash of values between some immigrant groups and their host country as well as the dilemma parents face when a teenage daughter breaks away. I found it a real page turner.
Good People by Patmeena Sabit, Virago, 2026, 383 pages ISBN: 9-780349-019444
Sounds interesting Jenny