Historical Fiction
All the Names We Carry
A Novel
2022 · 408 pages · Meridian Press
Identity is the story we tell ourselves — until we can't.
Spanning three generations and two continents, this sweeping novel follows a family whose secrets travel with them across borders and decades. From the markets of Lahore to the terraced houses of Birmingham, S.A. Bilal weaves a story of belonging, sacrifice, and the names we inherit — and the ones we choose for ourselves.
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Reading Sample
My grandmother kept her real name in a small tin box beneath her bed. She had another name for the neighbours, another for the school register, another still for the mosque on Fridays. By the time I was old enough to ask which one was true, she had forgotten the question.
'All of them,' she said, when I pressed her. She was peeling an orange, the rind coming away in one long spiral. 'And none of them. Names are just doors, child. What matters is what's on the other side.'
— from All the Names We Carry
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