Beloved Strangers: A Memoir - Hardcover

Chaudhuri, Maria

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1620406225 ISBN 13: 9781620406229

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2014

Synopsis

One of Maria Chaudhuri's early memories growing up in Dhaka was planning to run away with her friend Nadia. Home was not an especially unhappy place, but in Maria's family, joy was ephemeral. With a mother who yearned for the mountains and the solitariness and freedom to pursue her own dreams and career, and a charismatic but distant father who found it difficult to express emotion, they were never able to hold on to happiness for very long.

Maria studied the Holy Book and said her daily prayers, yet struggled to reconcile her inner self with her faith and her family. She dreamed, like her mother, of unstitching the seam of her life. Her neighbor, Bablu, both excited and repulsed Maria by showing her a yellowing pornographic magazine, but Mala, a girl her own age who came to work in their house, with her wise eyes and wicked smile, made Maria dizzy with longing. When she moved to New England to attend college at eighteen Maria faced new opportunities and challenges, including meeting Yameen, a man who lived in Jersey City and wooed her, but was not what he seemed...

From Dhaka to Jersey City, Beloved Strangers is a candid and moving account of growing up and a meditation on why people leave their homes and why they sometimes find it difficult to return. This unforgettable memoir will resonate with anyone carving out a place for herself in the world, straddling two cultures while trying to find a place to belong.

About this title

About the Author

Maria Chaudhuriwas born and grew up in Bangladesh, received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Vermont. Her essays, features and short stories have been published in various collections, journals and literary magazines. She lives in Hong Kong.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* How much can we ever know about those we’re closest to? In this exquisite memoir, Chaudhuri explores her past—both growing up in Bangladesh and her new life in New England—with great insight and empathy for those close to her. Her distant and fiercely religious father is felt mostly through his absence in their daily lives, while her mother mourns the glittering life of stardom she feels her singing talents should have brought her. The young Maria responds to her uncertainty and unhappiness by trying desperately to create order, acting out in numerous small ways. As she grows, she is stifled in her own singing aspirations, and her insecurities lead her to an unhappy marriage. Her recollections thrum with emotion, and her depictions of those in this complex web of relationships are nuanced and well balanced. Deep currents of family and home, and the meaning of those essential words, flow through every scene. Chaudhuri has created a contemplative examination of how her origins influenced the person she grew to be, and how sometimes it’s only possible to know someone by letting them go. --Bridget Thoreson

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1620406225
• ISBN 13: 9781620406229
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208