Brick Lane

Product Description

Still in her teenage years Nazneen finds herself in an arranged marriage with a disappointed man who is twenty years older Away from the mud & heat of 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 & is forced to depend on her husband But unlike him she is practical & wise & befriends a fellow Asian girl Razia who helps her understand the strange ways of her adopted new British home Nazneen keeps in touch with her sister Hasina back in the village But the rebellious Hasina has kicked against cultural tradition & run off in a 'love marriage' with the man of her dreams When he suddenly turns violent she is forced into the degrading job of garment girl in a cloth factory Confined in her flat by tradition & family duty Nazneen also sews furiously for a living shut away with her buttons & linings
- until the radical Karim steps unexpectedly into her life On a background of racial conflict & tension they embark on a love affair that forces Nazneen finally to take control of her fate Strikingly imagined gracious & funny this novel is at once epic & intimate Exploring the role of Fate in our lives
- those who accept it; those who defy it
- it traces the extraordinary transformation of an Asian girl from cautious & shy to bold & dignified woman