Between the heat and the spontaneous bursts of rain, there’s nothing better to do right now than curl up with a good book. You might think a doomscroll on your phone is a little more tempting, or honestly, all your attention appetite can handle, but Patmeena Sabit’s Good People might ask you to think again. This month’s book club pick is crafted in short, compulsively readable chapters that even the attention deficit from your high screen-time can’t resist.
Good People follows the death of 18-year-old Zorah Sharaf, an Afghan American teenager, who is found dead in a canal after a mysterious car accident. But it’s not a whodunnit in the conventional sense. Instead, it’s a murder mystery where the community plays detective instead of the cops. The good people from the title are in fact the polyphonic voices that make up the short and terse chapters. It’s perfect for a gossip looking to transition from reading blind items to reading novels.
Told entirely through the lens of her friends, neighbours, teachers, relatives, members of their close-knit Afghani community, and even the press, Good People purposefully denies Zorah’s own family their voice. Each member offers their view of the deceased while revealing to the readers the inner complexities of a society. Scroll below to read an interview with Sabit on her debut novel, along with all kinds of buzzy bookish news below.
