[4] Hussain first came up with the idea for her debut novel about a British-Pakistani Muslims family, centred around a recently widowed single father Amjad and his two daughters Saahil and Zahra,[5] during her final undergraduate year in 2014, began writing it during her MA, and completed it while pursuing her PhD.
Shortly after at a 2017 Bradford Literature Festival, she met Lisa Milton of HarperCollins, who expressed interest in the novel, through which Hussain secured her first book deal with the imprint HQ.
The novel was also longlisted for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize,[9] shortlisted at the Diverse Book (DB) Awards in the Adult category,[10] and named a Hidden Gem by Calibre Audio.
[11] For the National Centre for Writing in June 2021, Kei Miller named Hussain on his list of the UK's 10 best emerging writers.
The novel, about a British-Pakistani teenager Rubi who goes to stay with her grandfather Yusuf, is set in 2017 amid the backdrop of the Grenfell Tower fire and the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India.