A suicide bombing is being planned in Manchester, UK. Behind it lie Saleem Khan's vivid memories - some full of regret and yearning, others humorous and yet others overshadowed by the surreal brutality of the war.

In the 60s, he leaves his lover, his job as a teacher and his home in the rural Pakistan and travels to Bradford, a town seething with racism where Asians are 'Pakis' and their labour is cheap. He finds a job working in a mill on an all-Asian night-shift, becomes an active trade unionist and when the mills close down, he drives a taxi. He gives up his religion and...