Good People 💚

By Patmeena Sabit.

Zorah Sharaf could do no wrong.

Zorah Sharaf brought shame upon her family.

The truth depends entirely on who you ask, and that tension sits at the very heart of Good People.

The Sharaf family appear to embody success. Having escaped the horrors of war in Afghanistan, they resettle in Northern Virginia with nothing but determination and hope. From a cramped one room apartment, Rahmat Sharaf builds a life fuelled by ambition and belief in the American Dream.

A decade later, he is wealthy, respected, and able to provide his wife and four children with comfort, opportunity, and status. To the outside world, the Sharafs are a model family. Successful, happy, and deeply admired. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is her father’s pride and joy.

When an unthinkable tragedy strikes and Zorah dies, the family is thrust into the harsh glare of public scrutiny. What initially appears to be a tragic accident quickly becomes something far more complicated.

Rumours surface.

Questions are raised.

Whispers suggest that behind closed doors, the Sharaf family life may not have been as perfect as it seemed.

What makes Good People so compelling is the way the story unfolds. Rather than following a single perspective, the book is told through a kaleidoscope of voices.

Friends, neighbours, police officers, and members of the wider community all contribute their versions of events. Each voice feels authentic, biased, and emotionally charged. As a reader, your understanding constantly shifts. Certainties dissolve. Judgements are made and then quietly dismantled.

This narrative structure mirrors the modern world frighteningly well. In a society driven by social media, gossip, and instant opinion, the truth becomes fragmented and distorted.

Sabit captures the global tendency towards snap judgement with uncomfortable precision. Everyone believes they know what happened, even when they only hold a fraction of the story.

At its core, Good People is about family, love, cultural expectation, and the crushing weight of pressure. Zorah exists at the intersection of two worlds, shaped by her parents’ values, their sacrifices, and the expectations placed upon her as a daughter within a migrant family navigating a different culture. The demands placed on her push her in unexpected and ultimately tragic directions.

Patmeena Sabit shines a powerful light on the lived experiences of migrant families, exposing the misunderstandings, ignorance, and cultural clashes that can exist between communities. The book also challenges readers to examine the contradictions and hypocrisies within societies, particularly the ease with which blame is assigned when tragedy occurs.

The shifting perspectives are deeply effective, often manipulative in the most skilful way. Just as you think you understand what happened, another voice pulls the narrative in a new direction. Your thoughts are constantly evolving, and certainty remains just out of reach.

Good People is a provocative, haunting, and emotionally charged book that refuses easy answers. It asks difficult questions about truth, responsibility, and how quickly love can become judgement when filtered through fear and cultural ignorance.

Thank you to the team at Little Brown Book for sending me a copy of the book in time for publication day! The book is out now and available to purchase.

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