Love in a blue time

Love in a Blue Time is Hanif Kureishi's first collection of short fiction, gathering ten stories that explore identity and its relationship to sexuality, ethnicity, and gender. The stories are set in the post-Thatcher Britain of the mid-1990s, presenting a vision of a London depressed by economic stagnation, social disintegration, and the ubiquity of mass-mediated culture. Although Kureishi's exploration of these themes is rooted in a specific space and time, his book has broader resonances. Its exploration of the radicalization of Muslim youth in Britain became particularly pertinent after September 11, 2001, and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its treatment of relationships would be developed in Kureishi's later work, notably his controversial 1998 novella Intimacy.