Sarah Fairbairn reviews a ‘thrilling’ debut children’s novel by Walthamstow author Iqbal Hussain
A local author’s debut children’s novel was among the first to be published under a new imprint from a beloved published this January, as Puffin Press launched with three books aimed at the most voracious young book worms.
The Night I Borrowed Time is the thrilling story of Zubair, an eleven-year old seventh son of Pakistani heritage who discovers that the family heirloom passed to him by his gran has the power to take him back in time.
Although his first time-travel experiments are small scale, Zubair’s not just interested in going back to ace last week’s maths test. Stresses’ at home and a revelation about a tragedy in his family’s past lead him all the way back to 1947, to the Partition of India and to the root of his own parents’ marriage.
As author Iqbal Hussain told me: “The book tackles several big themes, including divorce and the Partition of India. Both felt important to explore. So many children grow up in households where their parents are struggling to get along, and I wanted them to see themselves reflected in my words – and to know that it’s not their fault. Grown-ups are fallible.
“The Partition was one of the largest movements of people in history, yet it isn’t a mandatory subject in UK schools. With so many children from South Asian backgrounds, it feels like too important a piece of history to ignore. Its repercussions are still felt today.”
As Zubair works through his new ability and figures out the rules of time travel, he discovers it doesn’t always go smoothly. Sometimes a trade-off has to be made, and some things just can’t be fixed, no matter how much you would like to stick the broken pieces back together.
Author Iqbal adds: “The one message I’d like readers to take from my book is that fate can’t be controlled, as much as we might sometimes want it to be – and that that’s okay. Things simply just are, for better or worse, and we’re often better off embracing what we have rather than wishing for something we don’t.”
‘The Night I Borrowed Time‘ is available to purchase at all good book stores (£8.99)
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