This was an interesting look at the life of a Bengali woman, Nazneen, who moves to London after her marriage to a much older man. Perhaps a rather too-perfect ending, but very good indeed (went straight off to check what other novels Ms Ali has written.) Read more
And she begins to fall in love with the dashing (if limited) young man who delivers the piece work to her flat.Meanwhile she continues to correspond with her sister back in Dhaka, where life is still more precarious, but where choices must still be made.Keeps you reading up till the end, unsure of what is going to happen.
Intelligent yet forever a failure, his grandiose plans ever turning to dust, always requiring his wife to trim his nasal hair and pare his corns.Nazneen observes the Bangladeshi community about her, the squabbles and fractures, the increasing tensions with local right wing gangs, the westernization of the young people as they turn to drugs and music. From the early days, with nervous walks about the inner city estate, where exchanging a smile with a neighbour is an achievement, through to motherhood, starting work, making her own friends.Ali does a brilliant job at portraying just why the flat feels like a temporary stop-off and not a home from the overcrammed furniture to the impossible.and yet not bad.husband Chanu. Very well written and enjoyable novel as uneducated Bangladeshi Nazneen arrives in London for an arranged marriage with an older man, the story meanders slowly forward, and with it, Nazneen's sense of self and ownership of her new life. Monica Ali’s splendid novel is about journeys both external and internal, where the marvelous and the terrifying spiral together. Yet to her amazement, she begins an affair with a handsome young radical, and her erotic awakening throws her old certainties into chaos. She submits, as she must, to Fate and devotes herself to her husband and daughters. Islam? What is a Hell's Angel? And how must she comfort the naïve and disillusioned Chanu?Īs a good Muslim girl, Nazneen struggles to not question why things happen. How can she cross the road without being hit by a car (an operation akin to dodging raindrops in the monsoon)? What is the secret of her bullying neighbor Mrs. A novel that’s multi-continental, richly detailed and elegantly crafted.” -Curtis Sittenfeld, author of SisterlandĪfter an arranged marriage to Chanu, a man twenty years older, Nazneen is taken to London, leaving her home and heart in the Bangladeshi village where she was born. A Bangladeshi immigrant in London is torn between the kind, tedious older husband with whom she has an arranged marriage (and children) and the fiery political activist she lusts after.
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