Half life - Roopa Farooki

'It's time to stop fighting, and go home'

These are the words that persuade Aruna to walk out of her East London flat in the middle of breakfast, and keep on walking. Leaving behind her marriage to Patrick, her adoring husband, she gets on a plane to Singapore, running back home to the city she had run away from in the first place. And there she finds her childhood friend and former lover, Jazz, who has never stopped waiting for her to return.

After years spent fleeing the ghosts of her past - the life she and Jazz had together, the terrible revelation that tore them apart, the troubling psychological diagnosis she would rather forget - Aruna is about to discover that running away is easy. It is coming home - making peace with herself, Jazz and those they have loved - that is hard.

Set in London, Singapore and Malaysia, Half Life is an extraordinary, brutal yet also lyrical novel of love and conflict, friendship and sacrifice.

'A compelling tale . . . Farooki's hypnotic narrative is driven by a delicate, probing intensity, full of grace and poignancy.' Publishers Weekly (US)