The Go-Between

A Portrait of Growing Up Between Different Worlds

By: Osman Yousefzada

Narrated by: Mikhail Sen

A coming-of-age story set in Birmingham in the 1980s and 1990s, The Go-Between opens a window into a closed migrant community living in a red-light district on the wrong side of the tracks.

The adult world is seen through Osman's eyes as a child: his own devout Pashtun patriarchal community, with its divide between the world of men and women, living cheek-by-jowl with parallel migrant communities. The orthodox attend a mosque down the road from the prostitutes and pimps. Children balance Western school teachings with cultural traditions.

Alternative masculinities compete with strict gender roles, and female erasure and honour-based violence are committed, even as empowering female friendships prevail. The stories Osman tells, some fantastical and humorous, others melancholy and even harrowing, take us from the Birmingham of Osman's childhood to the banks of the river Kabul and the river Indus, and, eventually, to the London of his teenage years.

Osman weaves in and out of these worlds, struggling with the dual burdens of racism and community expectations, as he is forced to realise it is no longer possible to exist in the spaces in between.

©2022 Osman Yousefzada (P)2022 Canongate Books Ltd.

Critic reviews

"A beautifully observed and funny book." (Guardian)

"Compelling and humane." (Sathnam Sanghera)

"This is one of those audiobooks that you can't stop listening to, punchy fairytale of determination, ably narrated by the actor Mikhail Sen.'" (Christina Hardyment, The Times)

From Ghettos to Glamour

Highly recommend this book. More than a memoir, this is a social commentary on a secluded immigrant community of the Pashtun people in the heart of Great Britain. This in depth look at the aspirations, fears, and thought processes of a family sheds some light on the reasons behind the lack of assimilation of many migrants in the British society. Peppered with hilarious anecdotes, beautiful Pashtun names, and codes of Pashtunwali, it’s also an engaging story of a brave boy’s journey from the ghettos of Birmingham to the red carpets of Hollywood. I would urge Osman to tell us more, maybe in the form of another book, about the latter part of his life ie. His time at Saint Martins and then in the fashion industry. His courageous sisters - Rukhsar and Marjan- deserve books of their own that tell their amazing story of putting themselves back in school and making a life for themselves that’s far removed from the strict orthodox community they grew up in.