The Khan- Book review
Be twice as good as men and four times as good as white men.
Jia Khan has always lived like this.
A successful lawyer, her London life is a long way from the grubby Northern streets she knew as a child, where her father headed up the Pakistani community and ran the local organised crime syndicate. Often his Jirga rule - the old way - was violent and bloody, but it was always justice of a kind.
But now her father, Akbar Khan, has been murdered and Jia must return to take his place. In the past, the police relied on him to maintain the fragile order of the streets. But a power struggle has broken out amongst the various communities and now, nobody is safe.
Justice needs to be restored, and Jia is about to discover that justice always comes at a price.
My Thoughts
Now this is far from my normal genre however I had been following the author on twitter who regularly releases articles and love how she articulates her stories across, so I just knew I had to get her book. I am an absolute sucker for unique covers and this one sure fit that bill. I ordered the special edition from Waterstones when it was released. I read this book a while back but it has taken me a while to sit and write a proper review as it fully deserves it.
After having read the blurb you may have already made a preconceived idea but when you first meet Jia you get thrown off. When a driver comes to collect her to take her back to her childhood home in preparation for her sister Maria, he finds her at an illegal cage fight instead of her luxury apartment. Alarm bells start to ring but actually what she uses the money for, makes you change your mind. But I start to get a sense from this point forward that there was more to Jia, no matter how successful she was had she really her father's ethos and business behind or has she inherited some skills that she has made the most of.
We get to learn more about Jia and that she actually has a son Ahad with her estranged husband after the fall out from the death of her sibling. On her arrival back to Bradford Jia learns her father has been murdered and her brother held hostage. Jia must now take ownership and leadership of the community her father had set up, however most of it is illegal and Jia has to contend with a-lot and questions her morals and the reason she left all this behind but has to put her family first.
Jai character made me feel infuriated as she was ruthless at times and not like her at all but this made her more intriguing, because the question was why is she like this. You sympathise with Jia as she moved herself and educated herself away from the culture that she grew up in to be different and when she is finally at the top of the game she is pulled back into her fathers business. From that viewpoint you can understand the hurt and anger she posses. There were lots of twists and additional to the plot that made you understand Jia more and underneath the remorseless attitude she had there was a naturing part to her. What I really liked was how the author pushed the boundaries of a strong female lead who challenges the norms of cultural and western living. Which isn't an easy feat by any means.
If you want a book that goes full in on; family, corruption, gangs, trying to survive, loyalty, challenges women face then, this is the one. It had so many themes packed into one but effortless read. There is also so much to say about this book as it is so complex and so much to unpick. I really liked how the narrative was switched to a female protagonist in a normally male arena/ read.
I cannot wait to see what the author is going to offer next.
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