Best Of Friends Kamila Shamsie Bloomsbury Circus £16.99

When we first meet Zahra and Maryam, they are best friends at a Pakistan school in 1988. They are naturally outgoing and, even in a conservative society, seem to have the world at their feet. Fast forward to London in 2019 and, although their friendship has endured, life is tugging them apart. Zahra runs a civil liberties organisation and faces deportation. Maryam is a venture capitalist, welcomed at Chequers. The novel drags in places, but the portrait of a complex friendship rings touchingly true.