NON-FICTION DIARY OF A PERSONAL ASSISTANT.

Autobiographies can be difficult to review. Not everyone is a reliable narrator and sometimes the book is clearly a focus-grouped, public relations opportunity. Both/ And: A Life in Many Worlds by Huma Abedin appears to be a publication of the latter kind, intended to redeem Abedin to her girlboss Hillary Clinton, in light of the view that Abedin's husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner, more or less cost Clinton the United States presidential elections of 2016.

True to the book's subtitle, Abedin has experienced life in quite a few worlds. Born in the US to a Pakistani mother and an Indian father, she was raised mainly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where her parents worked at the University of Jeddah; her mother taught sociology and her father was adviser to the president of the university. Abedin herself holds a degree in journalism and political science from George Washington University and is one of Clinton's closest aides.

Clinton's presidential loss came about when Weiner was being investigated for sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl. An examination of his laptop revealed emails between Abedin and Clinton, which led to the discovery that Clinton was using a private server to share potentially sensitive information, thereby violating American federal law.

Both/ And can be split into a retelling of Abedin's personal and professional lives. The former is heart-breaking to read: she was attacked and hounded by the media, and then by members of the public, for her husband's actions. The couple was also placed under surveillance to monitor their son's welfare. Reading Abedin's recollections, it appears to be a gruelling nightmare of intrusion and humiliation.

Huma Abedin's autobiography can be split into a retelling of the writer's personal and professional lives. The former is heart-breaking to read; the latter reads like a public relations exercise in service of Hillary Clinton

Abedin comes across as a fairly devout and practising Muslim - she begins her book with a quote from the Holy Prophet (PBUH): 'Happy is the man who avoids hardship, but how fine is the man who is afflicted and shows endurance.' She also refers frequently to things that will resonate with Muslim immigrant children, such as a love for the filet-o-fish burger at the fast food franchise McDonald's.

She further refers to her Muslim upbringing when talking about how she got through the difficult time of surviving public ire. In one painful...