Brick Lane

Monica Ali

At the tender age of eighteen, Nazneen's life is turned upside down. After an arranged marriage to a man twenty years her elder she exchanges her Bangladeshi village home for a block of flats in London's East End. In this new world, she struggles to make sense of her existence - and to do her duty to her husband. She must also care for her sister, Hasina, who has scandalized the village by running away with a man. But Nazneen submits, as she must, to Fate and devotes her life to raising her family and supporting her husband, step by step. Until Karim, a young radical, steps into the picture. Against a background of escalating racial and gang conflict, they embark on an affair that finally forces Nazneen to take control of her life.