The Thread That Connects Us

By Author / Illustrator

Ayaan Mohamud

Genre

Family & Home

Age range(s)

14+

Publisher

Usborne

ISBN

9781803704517

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

04-07-2024

Synopsis

New from the author of the acclaimed You Think You Know Me. A story of shared blood and bad blood, endings and beginnings...

Safiya has struggled to pick up the pieces of her family since her dad left them and moved to Somalia. She refuses to trust in love, despite wishing she could fall for boy-next-door Yusuf... And then her dad moves back to town with his new family, shattering her life all over again.

Halima doesn't want to move to England. She resents her stepdad for dropping her in a strange new life with a new language to learn - replacing her friends with bullies who set out to shame her.

When the girls are thrown together at school, it's hate at first sight. But as they uncover life-changing secrets from their parents' past, they begin to realize...What if the key to all their problems lies in their sisterhood?

"A powerful new voice." The Guardian, You Think You Know Me.

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Reviews

Clare

Safiya and Halıma are step-sisters. Previously separated by country, upbringing and culture, they are thrown together when Safiya's father (Halima's step-father) returns to Britain with his new family. Mistrust, tension and defiance abound as the sisters skirt around one another and the adults struggle to keep a lid on long-buried secrets. Whilst Halima dreams of going home to Somalia and resuming her former life, Safiya stumbles upon a mystery that threatens to further fracture already fragile family relations.

The Thread That Connects Us is a contemporary family saga with two headstrong female leads. Whilst the threads of family, culture and country are all there, it is Safiya and Halima's story (told in a dual narrative) with an important message of sisterhood in all its guises. There's a slow unfurling to the story that allows the reader to really get to know the girls and the worlds they have grown up in.

Relationships, families, school and bullying all feature and the book is boosted by a lyrically-written backstory. This is a realistic family drama with enough humour to balance the often weighty subject matter.

416 pages / Reviewed by Clare Wilkins, school librarian