Stage Fright

One week, every three years. Two women come together to test the endurance of their bond and to ask: what if?

2013, England. Ava and Aliya meet at university just outside of London. Ava is the quiet American who didn't come to England to meet boys in Jack Wills sweatpants with gelled hair. She's here for Emily Bronte and Brideshead Revisited. Everything disappoints her until: Aliya. Aliya is shy, earnest and this is the first time she has been away from her parents who live in Pakistan and the sense of freedom is overwhelming.

When they meet, there's an immediate spark. While everyone else is getting drunk on love, life, sex, drugs, they are getting drunk on each other. They move in together, become twin-like, wife-like in their devotion. They sleep in the same bed, read out loud to each other, finish each other's sandwiches. But in their very last week, something breaks between them and Ava flies back to America alone.

Three years later, Ava swishes into London with her new boyfriend, a director opening a play in London. Aliya is nervous and feels stalled in a life that used to seem full of promise. Meanwhile Ava's been at drama school and her life looks glamorous and exciting. But as the cracks start to appear in the fa ade, the two begin to find their fragile connection again.

Will this be the year they admit their feelings for each other? Or next time? Or the time after that?

What readers are saying about Sarvat Hasin:

'Heartbreaking, beautiful, epic. I loved it.' Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies

'Blindingly brilliant . . . I cannot wait to read everything she writes.' Daisy Johnson, author of Everything Under

'A beautiful and imaginative reinterpretation that had me spellbound.' Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne

'A wholly original story.' Guardian

Sarvat Hasin is from Pakistan. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford. Her first novel, This Wide Night, was published by Penguin India and longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Her second book You Can't Go Home Again was published in 2018 and featured in Vogue India's and The Hindu's best of the year lists. She won the Moth Writer's Retreat Bursary in 2018 and in 2019, Mo Siewcharran Prize for The Giant Dark which came out in 2021. Her essays and poetry have appeared in publications such as Outsiders, The Mays Anthology, English PEN, and Harper's Bazaar. She lives in London and works at the Almeida Theatre.

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