num_pages: 384
description: Barnes &amp; Noble Discover Great New WritersA captivating read from a debut novelist, Brick Lane brings the immigrant milieu of East London to vibrant life. With great poignancy, Ali illuminates a foreign world; her well-developed characters pull readers along on a deeply psychological, almost spiritual journey. Through the eyes of two Bangladeshi sisters -- the plain Nazneen and the prettier Hasina -- we see the divergent paths of the contemporary descendants of an ancient culture. Hasina elopes to a "love marriage," and young Nazneen, in an arranged marriage, is pledged to a much older man living in London. Ali's skillful narrative focuses on Nazneen's stifling life with her ineffectual husband, who keeps her imprisoned in a city housing project filled with immigrants in varying degrees of assimilation. But Ali reveals a bittersweet tension between the "two kinds of love" Nazneen and her sister experience -- that which begins full and overflowing, only to slowly dissipate, and another which emerges like a surprise, growing unexpectedly over years of faithful commitment. Both of these loves have their own pitfalls: Hasina's passionate romance crumbles into domestic violence, and Nazneen's marriage never quite reaches a state of wedded bliss. Though comparisons have drawn between Ali and Zadie Smith, a better comparison might be made between this talented newcomer and the work of Amy Tan, who so deftly portrays the immigrant experience with empathy and joy.(Fall 2003 Selection)
language: English
title: Brick Lane
titlecomplete: Brick Lane
genres: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, British Literature, India, Asia, Bangladesh, Literary Fiction, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 32860
places: London, England, Bangladesh
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Longlist, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Guardian First Book Award, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Orwell Prize, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Audie Award
category: Fiction, Abridged, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Kiriyama Prize
category: Fiction
publisher: Scribner