Brick Lane: By the bestselling author of LOVE MARRIAGE - Softcover

Ali, Monica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552771155 ISBN 13: 9780552771153

Publisher: Black Swan, 2004

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

'Written with a wisdom and skill that few authors attain in a lifetime' Sunday Times

Still in her teenage years, Nazneen finds herself in an arranged marriage with a disappointed older man. Away from her Bangladeshi village, home is now a cramped flat in a high-rise block in London's East End. Nazneen knows not a word of English, and is forced to depend on her husband.

Confined in her tiny flat, Nazneen sews furiously for a living, shut away with her buttons and linings - until the radical Karim steps unexpectedly into her life. On a background of racial conflict and tension, they embark on a love affair that forces Nazneen finally to take control of her fate.

'A brilliant evocation of sensuality' Daily Telegraph
'A novel that will last' Guardian
'Highly evolved and accomplished' Observer

Review:

With its gritty Tower Hamlets setting, this sharply observed contemporary novel about the life of an Asian immigrant girl deals cogently with issues of love, cultural difference and the human spirit. The pre-publicity hype about Brick Lane was precisely the kind to set alarm bells ringing (we've heard it so often before), but, for once, the excitement is fully justified: Monica Ali's debut novel demonstrates that there is a new voice in modern fiction to be reckoned with.

Nazneen is a teenager forced into an arranged marriage with a man considerably older than her--a man whose expectations of life are so low that misery seems to stretch ahead for her. Fearfully leaving the sultry oppression of her Bangladeshi village, Nazneen finds herself cloistered in a small flat in a high-rise block in the East End of London. Because she speaks no English, she is obliged to depend totally on her husband. But it becomes apparent that, of the two, she is the real survivor: more able to deal with the ways of the world, and a better judge of the vagaries of human behaviour. She makes friends with another Asian girl, Razia, who is the conduit to her understanding of the unsettling ways of her new homeland.

This is a novel of genuine insight, with the kind of characterisation that reminds the reader at every turn just what the novel form is capable of. Every character (Nazneen, her disappointed husband and her resourceful friend Razia) is drawn with the complexity that can really only be found in the novel these days. In some ways, the reader is given the same all-encompassing experience as in a Dickens novel: humour and tragedy rub shoulders in a narrative that inexorably grips the reader. Whether or not Monica Ali can follow up this achievement is a question for the future; it's enough to say right now that Brick Lane is an essential read for anyone interested in current British fiction. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"'Ali has an impressive command of her story, but her real gift is in the richness of the lives she has created, populating Nazneen's London with a very entertaining cast of comic characters'" (The Times)

"'I was totally gripped by Brick Lane. A brilliant evocation of sensuality which might occur anywhere'" (Daily Telegraph)

"'Written with a wisdom and skill that few authors attain in a lifetime'" (The Sunday Times)

"'Comedy and poignancy abound...Brick Lane is a wonderful debut'" (Sunday Telegraph)

"'Brick Lane has everything: richly complex characters, a gripping story and it's funny too'" (Observer)

• Publisher: Black Swan
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0552771155
• ISBN 13: 9780552771153
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512