The Night I Borrowed Time
Iqbal Hussain
Puffin Press

Eleven year old Zubair is a seventh son, his sextuplet elder brothers are often a pain but he loves them all the same. His parents’ marriage is falling apart so when his Gran from Pakistan arrives to stay and gives him a strange black velvet pendant that allows him as the seventh son of the family, to travel back in time, he decides to use it to try and change things in his parents’ pasts that will mean that they’re happy in the present. Once Gran is settled in she begins regaling the family with amazing stories every night. After one tale something weird happens to him; this he tells his best friend, Fozia, and in so doing comes to think about how best he can use his new, powerful gift.

Convinced that the failed relationship between his parents has been caused by his father’s accident while driving a cab and if that hadn’t happened all would be well between them, he fails to stop and consider whether his perception of how things are is based on what he wants to be the truth or the evidence that is right before his eyes. So when his attempts to change things fail to have the desired effect, he tries something different. However, each trip back in time affects something else and Zubair’s ever more desperate actions threaten to eradicate the life he knows. Is it possible to put things right, or has he not only destroyed the present for himself and his family, but their futures too.

This amazing and gripping tale of family and friendship is hugely thought-provoking, seamlessly weaving in as it does information about Partition and arranged marriages in Pakistani culture. (Further information about these comes after the story).

Iqbal Hussain is a very exciting new voice in children’s books this book being the first title published under Puffin’s new list, Puffin Press and I look forward to his next novel.