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Author Zachary Dillon describes 'Call It Anything But Love' as an unexpectedly bittersweet version of 'It's Complicated'.

03/06/2025

Zachary Dillon, author of I Hear You Watching shares his thoughts after reading Call It Anything But Love:

'It’s one thing to observe modern polyamorous relationships as an act of sexual liberation, but how do they function within the context of religious doctrine, especially in modern society when the subjects of sexual liberty and equality are more prominent?

This is where the book shines, because Coreishy’s response is a deeply nuanced, unexpectedly bittersweet version of “it’s complicated.”

I felt silly having approached the book as an outsider, because it quickly became clear that something being a “cultural fact” doesn’t make it any easier for people to accept or adjust to. Their concerns and reactions echoed my own, and each character’s portrait is so intimately drawn, I couldn’t help but sympathize with all of them.'

Dillon experienced the first six interconnected short stories more like 'a novel', which reminded me that Pleasantview, Celeste Mohammed's 'a novel-in-stories', was a book I read in preparation for writing Call It Anything But Love because I knew the stories would thread together.

I'm delighted to share with you Zachary Dillon's full review here.

His review of Call It Anything But Love is on his Substack and so is his book I Hear You Watching, a work of autofiction about a young man whose life becomes tortured by the voices he begins hearing. Though it's available as a free read of the weekly serialised chapters on Substack, you can buy the complete novel if you prefer. 

Oh, and if you haven't read Call It Anything But Love yet, wait no longer. You can get your copy right here.

Happy Reading!

3 Reasons to Explore 'Call It Anything But Love' With Your Book Group

13/05/2025

Why not try 'Call It Anything But Love' for your book group?

1) It's FREE, at least till the end of 2025.

2) It's SHORT, the eight short stories altogether are half the length of a short-ish novel.

and

3) It's probably really DIFFERENT from anything your group has read together before!

Check out the book group questions below:

1.     Which of these stories did you enjoy the most? Why?

2.     Which of the characters in these stories do you identify with the most?

3.     What feelings did these stories bring up for you?

4.     The collection is titled, Call It Anything But Love and Majeed would argue that he loves both Judith and Nadira. How would you respond to that?

5.     Law and religion aside, do you consider bigamy and polygamy to be morally wrong? Why, or why not?

6.     Can you imagine circumstances where two or more women share a husband and find the experience beneficial overall?

7.     Was Majeed’s wrongdoing wanting to marry Nadira while married to Judith, or rather the approach he took? Would you describe his approach as cowardly, selfish or naïve, or can you sympathise with his approach and rationale?

8.     How would you have preferred to see Majeed approach the possibility of marrying Nadira while still married to Judith?

9.     What did you think of Judith’s handling of her husband’s bigamy?

10.  What did Asiyah’s story evoke for you? How does the experience of having an ill parent while growing up impact a young person?

11.  How do Adam and Munir’s experiences of growing up and living in a homophobic society compare with the culture you grew up in? Has this culture shifted significantly in your community since the 1990s when Adam and Munir’s story is set?

12.  What did Arianna and Cisco’s story evoke for you? This story is told from Cisco’s point of view, but did you feel you understood Arianna’s point of view too? Did you sympathise with Arianna or Cisco? Are children ever better off without one of their parents in their lives?

Praise for 'Call It Anything But Love,' by Author Scarlet Ibis James

14/03/2025

Excited to share author Scarlet Ibis James' reviews of Call It Anything But Love.

Here she is, recommending Call It Anything But Love in glowing terms to her own readers and listeners.

See Scarlet's video review

Scarlet very generously recommended Call It Anything But Love to her Medium readers as well. 

Read here.

More kind words from Scarlet Ibis James:

Reviews of Call It Anything But Love are Rolling In!

28/01/2025

I'm excited and delighted to share with you what readers have to say after reading 'Call It Anything But Love.'

But first, if you haven't read it yet, you can get your FREE copy here from BookFunnel: My free copy of Call It Anything But Love

          Totally enjoyed reading your book. Didn't want to put it down. Keep up the good work. Can't wait for REPUTATION and all the rest that you have in store. - Kam Kam

      I warmed to these complex characters – and the setting which is a corner of the Caribbean I can’t wait to read more about. - JW

          The writing is clever and engaging and the characters are very well drawn. Brava! - Fazeela

          The exploration of Judith and Majeed’s marriage is gut wrenchingly powerful. It’s told with an expert understanding of these characters and the lives they occupy. Amanda does not force us into easy answers about a marriage that has changed beyond all recognition, but we leave with a much greater understanding of anyone that has lived this tale. – Bayo Awesu

          Phillipe Alexander says, (writing about Adam's story, Defence and Denial), 'I really do love it. I am interested to see where the story may go. It is pretty reminiscent of queer relationships past and very much present, and I think folks will relate to it.'

     These stories are more than just narratives—they are immersive experiences. You'll encounter engaging, flawed characters who challenge societal norms, all while offering a fresh perspective on Muslim culture in Trinidad. The sensory-rich storytelling will transport you directly into this vibrant nation. While examining generational conflict and navigating societal expectations, these layered narratives invite you to reflect on universal questions about identity, belonging, and freedom. This collection will pull you in quickly, as the author skillfully inspires you to confront your preconceptions. - D. Adiba, author of The Wrong Way to Wright.

     If you've already read Call It Anything But Love and would like to share your thoughts, either with me or other readers, I've made it easy for you with this handy link here.

     To keep up with my writing and reading adventures, sign up for Amanda Coreishy's Readers' Circle - there's a form at the end of this page. You'll receive occasional and exclusive updates, book recommendations and the odd article from Trouble at Taboo Junction. So far I've sent seven Readers' Circle newsletters over eighteen months - so my updates really are occasional!

Get Your Free Copy of 'Call It Anything But Love' right here!

16/12/2024

Call It Anything But Love is finally ready and waiting for you.

No, it will not be sold by Amazon or Waterstones or Nigel Khan Bookstores or Barnes and Noble or your local independent bookshop. It's not on sale at all. Instead ... You can read it for FREE. It's exclusively available through this website (and to randomly lucky people who might be shown an ad or two next year).

So yes, if you're part of Amanda Coreishy's Readers' Circle, your copy should be in your inbox.  

New around here? Sign-up for the readers' circle below and get your copy with your welcome email!

No idea what this is all about but your friend sent you to this page? Okay, let me sum up this short story collection for you:

‘Call It Anything But Love’ takes you to 1990’s Trinidad, exploring the impacts of illness, polygyny and homophobia on family life - and much more besides.

One moment Judith is admiring her devoted husband on stage. The next, she learns he's a bigamist. Call It Anything But Love will take you on honest, raw and heartbreaking journeys through eight startling short stories. 

You'll meet Nadira as she treads carefully, navigating an uncharted path as Majeed’s second wife, while events spin out of control, making trouble neither she nor Majeed can fix. Meanwhile, Majeed and Judith's sixteen-year-old daughter, Asiyah, spins her own dreams, even if her family refuses to believe in them. Munir and Adam have a chance meeting after a long estrangement, and Adam finds himself re-opening a painful past alongside possibilities for a courageous future. Arianna's saying a final goodbye, because no matter how much she loves Cisco, even the kids she loves can't keep them together.

Best read in order, these stand-alone stories also flow together. They introduce the characters of Reputation, but keep Reputation spoiler-free.

F.A. has this to say about Call It Anything But Love, 'I find the writing elegant!'

Of Munir and Adam's story, Phillipe says, 'I really do love it. I am interested to see where the story may go. It is pretty reminiscent of queer relationships past and very much present, and I think folks will relate to it.'

If this sounds like something you'd like to read, I'll be delighted to email it to you. You can read it on BookFunnel, on your browser, on your e-reader, on the beach, on a train, in your bed, in front your TV ... you get the idea, wherever you like.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading Call It Anything But Love as much as I’ve enjoyed bringing it into being. Book group fiction can make you feel, make you wonder and make you want to talk and share. I hope Call It Anything But Love will be that kind of book for you.

I will be very grateful to have your thoughts on this collection. You can email them in to readerscircle@amandacoreishy.com. Once I've got enough reviews in, I'll feature the positive ones on the website. Of course critical reviews are 100% welcome - as I can keep them in mind for later editions and the future fiction I'll write for you.

Oh I nearly forgot, here's your link to get your copy: 

https://freebook.amandacoreishy.com/cpx9hqmfn3

I do hope you'll enjoy the read! And if you do, please make my day and send me a review!

Nine Months Later - An Update on Birthing 'Call It Anything But Love'

12/09/2024

CALL IT ANYTHING BUT LOVE IS NEARLY HERE

Your free short story collection, Call It Anything But Love is close to completion - and I am so excited!

I’m through with most of my second draft edits and unless something very left field lands in the middle of my life, the third and final draft shouldn’t take long. 

Sign up for my Readers' Circle to be sure to get your copy when it’s ready for download.

If you’re interested in reading Call It Anything But Love at the second draft stage to offer suggestions for the final draft, or positive reviews I can share with prospective readers, please do let me know by messaging me on the Amanda Coreishy Facebook author page.

Getting curious?

The eight-story collection is the length of a novella, or half the length of a short-ish novel.

Five of the eight stories are Judith’s. Judith was the only protagonist of these short stories that I didn’t know fairly well when I began this project and writing her was an act of discovery.

In Reputation, she's a rarely referenced memory. But in Call It Anything But Love she became real. And once her story began to unfold, writing it felt like a compelling duty. She suffers immensely, moreso than I ever have – and I found myself empathising deeply with her as I wrote.

If I had to write a blurb for the collection, it might read like this:

One moment Judith is admiring her devoted husband on stage. The next, she learns he’s a bigamist. Set in mid-1990’s Trinidad, Call It Anything But Love explores polygny and much more in eight startling short stories. Love will be thwarted and if you want a happy ending, you might have to make your own. You have been warned.

Call It Anything But Love is an honest, raw and heartbreaking exploration of a subject rarely tackled in fiction.

Best read in order, these stories introduce the characters of Reputation, spoiler-free and with no hint of what is to come.

Join Amanda’s Readers’ Circle for exclusive access, if you haven’t already

'Call It Anything But Love' is Late

29/12/2023

How long does it take to write a short story? There's no single answer to that. But I've had the delight of discovering that for the collection I'm working on the time frame runs like this:

• two days of thinking - showering and packing the dishwasher are typically great events during which story details emerge - and then noting thoughts in messy mindmaps.
• two days of writing, in four-hour stints.
• one day of editing and ta-da! I have a first draft!
• listen to readers' feedback and edit again (and edit again ... repeat till satisfied).

That's a seven (or nine) day time frame. 

I expect there will be at least seven - and at most nine - short stories in Call It Anything But Love. So, how's it going? Very well indeed. Why the delay then?

Ah.

Commitments. Other commitments besides writing. As such, it's taking four times as long as it otherwise might. The good news is that for 2024 I'm resolving not to overcommit. One measure of successfully not overcommitting, will be always having enough time for writing.

Why did I say it's going very well if I expected to deliver Call It Anything But Love by the end of this year and I haven't? Well, because I'm absolutely enjoying the process and loving the emerging stories. I can't wait to share them with all of you in the Readers' Circle.

Oh, you're not in the Readers' Circle? That's easily fixed. I've got a sign-up box somewhere on this page. You can't miss it.

(This image was rather lazily abstracted from the Pexel website. There is no photo-credit and I don't know if it is an AI-generated image. It is NOT the cover image for the short story collection. Just thought I should make that clear).

Let's Talk About Trees - and Cashew Chow - and Great Books about Trees!

14/08/2023

Have you ever seen a cashew tree? I grew up at my grandmother's in Trinidad and in the wild slope of the backyard behind our home, there was a cashew tree. Of course, I took it for granted. It was chopped down when I was about 11, give or take a year or two. And I haven't seen a cashew tree since.

I remember picking the yellow, fleshy fruit with my cousins. Our grandmother would make a 'chow' with it. She'd cut the cashew into cubes and add salt, black pepper and chadon beni. (Chadon beni for those who don't know it, tastes something like fresh coriander - but it grows wild). The fruit of the cashew was sour and the thin yellow skin had a rubbery texture. I would relish it now, but back then we turned up our noses.

The cashew nuts were kept safe in black shells attached to the yellow fruit. My grandma, whom we called Ma, would roast them, not minding that they were barely a handful.

At my primary school in Trinidad there was an almond tree we relied on for relief from the daily 31-33 degree C heat. I remember, as a child, picking up the shiny green almond fruit and the fibrous brown ones. What we didn't do was gather them to either harvest or eat the almond nuts on the inside. I guess we took the almond tree for granted as well.

My interest in trees has been limited over the years. Vaguely, I felt deficient about not being able to name very many. But Botany struck me as the most boring subject in the world.

One book changed my relationship with trees. It might sound like hyperbole but it's entirely true. I now have reverence for these majestic, precious life-forms.

1) Overstory by Richard Powers was the book that gave me this reverence. It's a work of genius; a fictitious story thoroughly researched which brings the social science of trees to life in a way that just might inspire reverence for you too.

2) The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben will wake you up to the transport, communication and cooperation networks that have served trees long before man and womankind were even a thought.

Though Overstory is about people politicised into becoming eco-activists to save a Mother Redwood Tree and the surrounding ancient forest, it moved me spiritually. Meanwhile, The Hidden Life of Trees is entirely factual and presented in a conversational way, but I can see it changing people's politics - and inspiring reverence besides.

3) Finally, one for your children. My daughter chose this herself, on a day trip to Oxford: Arrow by Samantha M. Clark After she read it, she wanted to share it with me. So we read it as a chapter book together. It's told through the eyes of a boy, Arrow, who grew up in a magically hidden remnant of South American rainforest. When the magic begins to fail, he's confronted with a band of children from the Barbs and a team of capitalists from the Stilts, all of whom want the riches of the forest for themselves.

The tree in the photo, if you're wondering, is an almond tree. I took the photo about a year ago on Maracas Beach in Trinidad. The beach features in 'Reputation' but I thought I'd share something of it that isn't sea and sand.

Trouble at Taboo Junction Sets Sail!

01/08/2023

I've got a crew of one and two oars, so Trouble at Taboo Junction is set to sail slowly down the river. No ocean crossings for us just yet!

But come along for the ride! Your welcome article is right here.

New Website Launched!

14/07/2023

I’d like to give a loud shout-out to Tim and the two Joes at Jarrett and Lam. Thank you for the technical bits we can’t see and the aesthetics we can. I’m a techno-dinosaur, despite coming of age when www started to mean something to the world. And while Reputation’s Asiyah is an artist, when it comes to design, I’m everything but!