Rebekah Staton and Hasan Dixon read Pieces by Manish Chauhan, the third story shortlisted for the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award, followed by an interview with the author on BBC Radio 4's Front Row Podcast presented and produced by Rick Woska
BBC sounds music radio podcasts hello and welcome back to the BBC short story podcast, where this week we're showcasing the five shortlisted stories from the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University.
The third story on the shortlist is written by Manish Chohan and is told from the dual perspectives of Jamila, a british muslim woman, and Rafiq, a young gay muslim refugee who Jamilah takes into her home.
A convert to Islam, Jamilah's faith is uncompromising, so when she discovers Rafiq in bed with another man, she finds herself conflicted.
Pieces is read by Rebecca Staton and Hassan Dixon.
Pieces by Manish Chohan, read by Rebecca Staton and Hassan Dixon.
She carried the tray upstairs and left his food on the landing.
It was evening, the house warm and quiet.
His bedroom door was shut.
Along its bottom a strip of bluish light flickered.
Don't let it get cold, she said, tapping lightly.
Silence.
What did he do all day?
They had given him Adam's old iPad.
She supposed he was glued to that.
It was his third day staying with them, and everything was still a bit of a guessing game.
She would have preferred him to eat with her and Shahzeb, but Shahzeb said they ought to wait until he was ready.
It felt strange having somebody they didnt know living with them.
Downstairs, Shah was watching something on the Discovery Channel, a pack of yelping hyenas launching an attack on a thin, scrubby lionesse.
Can we not watch something else?
She asked.