This is a unique novel. From the beginning, you know something big has happened. But it takes half the novel to find out what.
It’s set in an Afghan community in the USA and centres around the Sharaf family. I won’t give anything away as the build-up is important.
It’s told through a series of different narrators - from family friends to reporters to neighbours. You’re effectively piecing things together with them.
It’s a little bit of a slow burn in terms of plot in the first half, but it’s worth the perseverance.
Recommended: unique and intriguing..

A fantastic read! So many threads, so many angles, yet Good People comes together brilliantly to explore how and why cultures clash and how we react to the questions raised.

The plot of Good People unwinds through the eyes of family, friends, neighbours, the community. the police and the media, so we get a 360 degree examination of the experiences of Afghan families finding themselves negotiating a strange new home with a culture challenging their own.

It's true that the book starts frustratingly slowly, but it gathers pace rapidly and the story emerges as a genuinely gripping tale. Your mind will work overtime trying to guess what is to come; the only thing you know for sure is that you have a sense of dread that something terrible is going to happen somewhere along the way. No spoilers here, but you quickly realise that sense of dread wasn't misplaced.

The title - we begin to understand - is not so much a statement as a question. Who are the good people? What do we consider when we make our judgements of who is good and who is bad? Can good people do wrong things for the right reasons? The story unwinds through the eyes of family, friends, neighbours, the community. the police and the media, so we get a 360 degree examination of the experiences of Afghan families who find themselves negotiating a strange new home with a culture that challenges their own.

It's beautifully written with some real stand-out prose:
"But many people have money and they still dip their daily bread in blood and swallow it in grief."
"The beautiful ones are never far from filth. It's God's great curse upon their heads. With one hand He gives them beauty, and with the other a secret stench that wants only a time and place to rise."

Recommended.

The format of this book is very interesting and unusual but it works really well. We don't know what really happened for a while but we get a sense of the atmosphere and the surroundings. We never find out what really happened but it works and leaves you with your own thoughts. Definitely worth a read.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group, and the author Patmeena Sabit.
Although a clever format and an interesting premise, this book didn't grip me and I found myself rushing through it in order to finish.
There were some involving elements but overall, not for me. 2 stars.

An intriguing and well written story, a novel to be read to help fight againg preiudices.
Good storytelling, good style of writing
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

It took me a while to get into this story, in part because the backstory took a long time to get through. Once Zorah had died, it became very engrossing. None of the protagonists actually gave their side of the story so we readers will never know the truth. Normally, I would have hated an unresolved ending but this time I understand why it was written this way, though I shall be mulling over my own thoughts of what really happened for quite a while to come. An impressive debut.

A really interesting format - there are a number of narrators including family friends, neighbours, the police and the general community - but importantly, not the family itself. With the current anti-immigrant feeling so strong in the media in the UK, it was a great example of how a perfectly innocent and tragic situation can be misinterpreted and blown out of recognition.
I don't know why I felt slightly deflated by the conclusion - I suppose that is real life, but I did want a definitive statement from the family.

4,75 stars

"Good People" was a really interesting read:
I liked the structure of it consisting of various interviews, opinion pieces, and newspaper articles about the Sharaf family, with the family never giving their own view/perspective on the matter. It is really unusual, but definitely worked here.

The open ending- it's never shown / told what actually happened - also works really well here, and it really impressed me how well this novel shows how (public) opinion can shift, and be influenced.

I definitely look forward to reading more from this author.

4+ 🌟


I have picked this up at every spare moment I've had.
The writing style of short multiple narrators meant I could squeeze in five minutes here and there and feel fully engaged with the story.
It's an excellent read, the various people narrating how our characters come to America with nothing, how they prosper, what a loving family they are.
But then there's money, and the tide turns and suddenly the American dream doesn't seem that great.
I really enjoyed the writing style, and can see why there's already such a buzz around this debut.
It's a fantastic read.

Patmeena Sabit's "Good People" is a powerful and emotionally charged first novel that explores the intricacies of family, identity, and tragedy. The book skillfully weaves through the wake of a tragic loss to examine how a family's public life can conflict with their private grief. In a chorus of voices ranging from family to distant acquaintances the book paints a richly nuanced picture of Zorah Sharaf, an Afghan refugee whose death erases her family's best-made world.

The structure of the narrative is its strongest asset, presenting a fractured yet unified picture of Zorah's existence and the truths hidden beneath its surface. The author's prose is both propulsive and richly perceptive, engaging readers while also encouraging reflection on issues of perception, prejudice, and cultural expectation. This is greater than a mystery; it's a bittersweet examination of what it's like to be an outsider and the steep price of attempting to belong. "Good People" is a gripping and evocative novel that will linger long after the last page.

4 ⭐

ARC Review

Although this book took me a while to get into once I understood the writing style it was such a unique way of diving into the families background and story.

Following the story of an immigrant family from Afghanistan to the US and how cultures come together from both sides to form an opinion on a subject neither side know enough about.

Although you don't get a definitive conclusion at the end I really liked the author including that because it showed both sides of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for this advance copy.

This book is worth a read. Set in Virginia it focuses on the Sharaf family and their eldest daughter Zorah.

It’s written with third party accounts throughout from family friends, Zorah’s school friends as well as journalists, law enforcement and lawyers. Explaining the story of the family having accounts from multiple narrators gives alternative viewpoints. Interestingly there is no point where any member of the Sharaf family narrates the story.

Differing accounts means that there is no reliable narrator and means that you as the reader have to determine whether Zorah is a victim or the culprit of her fate. It has a really good dynamic of interfaith differences alongside the tension of Afghan families living in America with different cultural values.

The style and the way the story was written took a bit of getting used to as it is told in a series of observations from friends, neighbours and officials. The story centres around the Sharaf family who live in America and are Muslim immigrants from Afghanistan. Zorah Sharif is eighteen when she has a car accident and dies. Her father came to America with nothing and through hard work and determination became a millionaire. Zorah is the light of his life and wants for nothing, but what she would like is to be treated like any other American but Muslim rules and principles deny her that. She becomes rebellious and sneaks off behind her familiy’s back with a young man. This outrages her father and he makes threats towards Zorah which are heard by numerous people. When Zarah returns to the family when she and her boyfriend split up she appears to be welcomed but when she is killed in the car accident rumours start to circulate about what exactly happened. Once you get used to the style that the book is written in it becomes quite easy to follow. There are opposing views about the family’s involvement into Zorah’s death and it is easy to be swayed into what you think may have happened. The book is quite an eye opener into Muslim tradition and the difficulty of being brought up in a Western country while the family is still very rooted in their ways. It must be very difficult for a young girl when all her friends are given the freedom to behave in a certain way. It is easy to see how it made Zorah rebel against her family’s culture. I enjoyed reading this and wanted to know the outcome so I finished it quite quickly. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me an ARC of this book.

"For good people, name is everything. The beginning and end. Once my good name is lost, it's lost forever".
Wow! That was the Netflix true-crime documentary of the year!
I've never read a book that so clearly played out in my mind like a true-crime drama. This was a masterclass in modern story-telling with even the minor characters so finely attuned in their sentiment which made the believability go up tenfold. I had to Google whether the case was real.

Essentially, through the Netflix-style (I hope the author doesn't mind me repeating this, but wow! It was incredibly vivid!) accounts from family friends, school teachers, neighbours, police department and lawyers (among others), the mystery of 18 year old Zorah Sharaf and her family's involvement in what happened to her is slowly uncovered.

Through topics of gender discrimination, what it means to be Muslim in America, religious pressures, family politics and a whole host more, this novel came to me and hopefully others at a time to understand and revaluate what it means to understand the burden of living in a society which always wishes to place the blame on anyone but themselves. This is a novel about truth and mistruths and how people <i>choose</i> their own beliefs based on the snippets of information they hear.

Thought provoking, easy to read, engaging and wow. I gave it 5 stars.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and little brown book company for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A thought provoking novel.

I quite enjoyed this book and the way it was written. It tells of an immigrant family living the American dream. Zorah Sharaf's family had arrived from Afghanistan as refugees, to Virginia in the United States. After years of hard work, her father became a millionaire. The children went to private schools and had a privileged life.
When Zorah dies after her car veers off the road, it seems like a tragic accident. However Zorah was said to have disgraced her family and that gave everyone an opinion as to why she died..
Throughout the book, the story is told by people who knew the family and those involved with them. It was easy to make judgements and be swayed by what was said, as hard as I tried not to. That gave the book credibility. Whatever my thoughts were, this event had a profound effect on many and was sad.
I will look for more books by this author.

The different layers to the title was the key to understanding this book.

On the surface, the family the story revolves around are good people so were asked to consider if they could have done a bad thing.

But we never hear directly from the core family, only their friends and wider family as well as neighbours and institutions ranging from the media to the police to domestic abuse charities. The range of viewpoints and lack of objective reality means the book is daring you to base your view of what happened on which of these groups you consider to be good people and to discard what the groups you don’t agree with say.

At some points it takes this further by presenting someone in a favourable light but them making them do or say something bad and posing the question if that means you should change your view of what they said before.

It’s also a very modern book so i felt it was asking you to think about what conclusion’s good people you know in the real world would draw and if you can be a good person if you don’t hold the same views.

An interesting exploration of the importance of perspective, group dynamics and if truth exists.

Wow! Good People is probably the most powerful and yet infinitely readable book I've read in a long time. It is such an original concept and touches on so many themes, feelings and emotions both positive and negative. It's a bit like what I imagine being on a jury would be like, each new opinion sways your thoughts to a different direction. I won't forget this book for a long time, it's taught me so much.

Patmeena Sabit has produced a debut novel that will/ should open up much conversation.

This is a story about family, love , cultural expectations and differences and ultimately tragedy.

The Sharaf family escaped the horror of war in Afghanistan and have been resettled in North Virginia USA. They live in a one room apartment but Rahmat Sharaf pursues the American Dream and after a decade becomes a successful and wealthy businessman. His wife and four children are able to live a charmed life ; he has aspirations of success for his children especially for his daughter Zorah. The world around sees a family filled with happiness but is all that it seems?

The demands and pressure lead Zorah into unexpected directions and to her death. The family are devastated but then questions are asked… is what appeared to be an accident actually the truth?

The story of the Sharaf family is told through the voices of friends, neighbours, the police and many others- each giving their viewpoint. In a world polarised by the quick judgement of many on social media, TV and through gossip and cultural ignorance, this book raise so many questions. It also challenges us to look at the hypocrisies and contradictions within societies and cultures.

Patmeena Sabit has shone an important light on issues of migrant families living in a different culture; the ignorance and misunderstanding between different mindsets and the global epidemic of allowing jury by social media.

It’s easy to see why this debut novel is being publicised as a book club read for 2026 - a book that will leave you questioning how your own thoughts and perceptions can be influenced by external voices ( especially in a divided world) but ultimately a novel that should also make us all reflect upon using hearsay in any situation.

It took me a little while to get into this book, but once it clicked, I absolutely loved it. It’s a deeply tragic story that is both moving and unforgettable, the kind that lingers with you long after you turn the last page. The use of multiple points of view adds a fascinating, thought-provoking dimension to the narrative.
"Good People" is a powerful read, and I’ll be recommending it to everyone I know.

I absolutely loved this book!

It was the story of a disappearance of a young woman, told through the voices and words of friends, neighbours, family members, the local media. Everyone apart from the women herself, and her close family members. Because of this it was a quick and engaging read.

What I particularly loved about it was how the author wrote it in a way to get you changing your mind about what was happening, and who was to blame throughout. It played on ignorance, racism, prejudice. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an eye opening read - not the easiest at times and the ending was a challenge for me too!

Thanks to Patmeena Sabit, Virago and NetGalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.