(ali). brick lane. - Softcover

Ali Monica

3.45

33,657 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552151599 ISBN 13: 9780552151597

Publisher: BLACK SWAN, 2003

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

This exciting and deeply moving debut novel follows the tumultuous life of nazneen from her birth in a bangladeshi village hut, to her arranged marriage to chanu and the subsequent move to london's tower hamletsnazneen's inauspicious entry to the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a bangladeshi village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to chanu her life in london's tower hamlets is, on the surface, calm for years, keeping house and rearing children, she does what is expected of her yet nazneen walks a tightrope stretched between her daughters' embarrassment and her husband's resentments chanu calls his elder daughter the little memsahib 'i didn't ask to be born here,' say shahana, with regular finalityinto that fragile peace walks karim he sets questions before her, of longing and belonging; he sparks in her a turmoil that reflects the community's own; he opens her eyes and directs her gaze - but what she sees, in the end, comes as a suprise to them bothwhile nazneen journeys along her path of self-realization, a way haunted by her mother's ghost, her sister hasina, back in bangladesh, rushes headlong at her life, first making a 'love marriage', then fleeing her violent husband woven through the novel, hasina's letters from dhaka recount a world of overwhelming adversity shaped - yet ultimately not bound - by their landscapes and memories, both sisters struggle to dream themselves out of the rules prescribed for thembeautifully rendered and, by turns, both comic and deeply moving, brick lane establishes monica ali as one of the most exciting new voices in fiction

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Wildly embraced by critics, readers, and contest judges (who put it on the short-list for the 2003 Man Booker Prize), Brick Lane is indeed a rare find: a book that lives up to its hype. Monica Ali's debut novel chronicles the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi girl so sickly at birth that the midwife at first declares her stillborn. At 18 her parents arrange a marriage to Chanu, a Bengali immigrant living in England. Although Chanu--who's twice Nazneen's age--turns out to be a foolish blowhard who "had a face like a frog," Nazneen accepts her fate, which seems to be the main life lesson taught by the women in her family. "If God wanted us to ask questions," her mother tells her, "he would have made us men." Over the next decade-and-a-half Nazneen grows into a strong, confident woman who doesn't defy fate so much as bend it to her will. The great delight to be had in Brick Lane lies with Ali's characters, from Chanu the kindly fool to Mrs. Islam the elderly loan shark to Karim the political rabblerouser, all living in a hothouse of Bengali immigrants. Brick Lane combines the wide scope of a social novel about the struggles of Islamic immigrants in pre- and post-9/11 England with the intimate story of Nazneen, one of the more memorable heroines to come along in a long time. If Dickens or Trollope were loosed upon contemporary London, this is exactly the sort of novel they would cook up. --Claire Dederer

About the Author:

Coming soon...

Coming soon...

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.