I knew I was going to find this book moving and interesting when it opened on Willows Road, a few miles from my house. Yousefzada lifts the lid on the ultra-orthodox Pathan Afghan community in Birmingham in his youth - the 1980s to mid 1990s - the women kept in strict seclusion, domestic violence rife and accepted by many, girls taken out of school at the end of primary school, lies told to cover up their absence, sent back "home" or kept in the house, hidden when the inspectors come round. It was quite shocking to me that this was still happening into the mid-1990s, when I was around Birmingham, with no idea.

The book sounds grim but it's anything but, really. It's a celebration of Osman's mum, a talented seamstress who created clothes with no patterns, running her own business from their house, all sorts of women visiting to use her skills, and the other women who weave a network of mutual support. There's palpable grief when he becomes too old to sit with the women, enjoying their colourful clothes and stories, popping out to buy them shoes, but he then starts to understand the processes happening to his sisters and he's very vocal in the latter part of the book about their plight and his support of them. As in "Manifesto" we find a strict dad who will lecture and rarely soften, and we also have a system of community elders, often friends since childhood, who rule social conventions with fear and shaming to keep everyone in order, while the more educated - particularly the local scribe - are kinder and more supportive where they can be.

As well as family and community business, Yousefzada also describes social change that sweeps over the religious community when Islam becomes more heavily codified and visiting preachers require change just at the time that many men are made redundant in the recession so have more time for religious pursuits: so the dads change from having film star hair and best suits to growing beards and adopting close fitting hats over shaved heads - as an embryonic fashion designer, he obviously notices all the little details of appearance as he's growing up and this gives a rich and fascinating background for the personal and social events.

Being set in Birmingham brought it all closer to me, and it was fascinating to see families living a separate life to the wider community around him. Not all is separate, though, and both the sex workers who line the night-time streets and his White teachers help Yousefzada to learn about different types of people and different ways to be.

A beautifully written, often funny, often moving book which I highly recommend, even if you don't know Birmingham well.

My blog review: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2023/01/30/book-review-osman-yousefzada-the-go-between/

Beautifully written with love and care this book really gets you in the gut at times. I really enjoyed it and cannot wait to read more from this author.

As a young boy, Osman Yousefzada got to experience a bit of both worlds. Living in an Asian community in England, he got to sit in with his mother and her friends until he hit puberty and was shut out of these meetings. He experienced cultural differences and racial abuse at school. It's an interesting memoir although the end feels a bit rushed.

This was such a fascinating and evocative read - Osman writes really beautifully and I hope he goes on to write more!

Heartwarming and heart-breaking, at times, Yousefzada's "The Go-Between" explores the theme of identity and of belonging.