The Way Things Look to Me

The Murphy family has never tried to be different; they just are. When Yasmin, the youngest sibling, was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, her older siblings learned to adapt to less attention and more responsibility, to a sister with "special abilities" that no one, not even they, could ever truly understand. Since the deaths of their parents, the three siblings have become adults in their unique, tragic ways. Asif, the responsible oldest brother, has been left to take care of Yasmin by their middle sister Lila, the stubbornly rebellious beauty who resents Yasmin for her emotional distance, and for stealing their mother's love and attention. As Yasmin's committed caretaker, Asif is worn down. A young professional, he feels his freedom slipping away as he tries hard to keep the remains of their family together.

When the unthinkable happens, threatening the Murphy siblings' delicate balance, will they stand together or fall apart? Roopa Farooki's The Way Things Look to Me is a deeply moving portrait of Brothers and Sisters, of three siblings caught between duty and love in a tangled relationship both bitter and bittersweet.

ROOPA FAROOKI was born in Pakistan and brought up in London. She graduated from New College, Oxford and now lives in southeast England and southwest France with her husband, twin baby girls and two sons. Bitter Sweets, her first novel, was nominated for the Orange Award for New Writers 2007. The Way Things Look to Me was longlisted for the Orange Prize and the 2011 Impac Dublin Literary Award. Her four novels have been published to literary acclaim internationally and translated into a dozen languages.