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Brick Lane

3.3 of 5 stars 3.30 · rating details · 13,403 ratings · 1,081 reviews

A 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 divergen...more

Paperback, 432 pages

Published June 2nd 2004 by Scribner (first published August 19th 2003)

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Jul 30, 2007 Nancy rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: somebody who wants to read it

Could it take me longer to read a book? I made myself read this book everyday so I could be done with it and properly hate it.

Look at what the NY Review of Books said:

"Ali succeeds brilliantly in presenting the besieged humanity of people living hard, little-known lives on the margins of a rich, self-absorbed society."

WHO IS THIS CRAZY NUT? You need to read a book like Brick Lane to understand "besieged humanity" or what it's like to live a "hard, little-known" life?

The protaganist moves around...more Could it take me longer to read a book? I made myself read this book everyday so I could be done with it and properly hate it.

Look at what the NY Review of Books said:

"Ali succeeds brilliantly in presenting the besieged humanity of people living hard, little-known lives on the margins of a rich, self-absorbed society."

WHO IS THIS CRAZY NUT? You need to read a book like Brick Lane to understand "besieged humanity" or what it's like to live a "hard, little-known" life?

The protaganist moves around in the book like she's had a lobotomy. It wasn't until page 152, I believe, when Nazneen giggles. FINALLY, the woman shows a sign of life. Her senses are completely dulled. Don't buy into the crap about "what it must be like to live a suppressed/oppressed life as a Muslim woman." That's not what's going on. Compare Nazneen's character to that of her sister, aunt, and friends. It's a wonder that lifeless Nazneen even moves into an affair with a younger man.

The most ridiculous part (and because of that, maybe the most enjoyable?) of Nazneen's story is when she stops this evil money lender Mafia-like woman in the story by asking her to swear on the Qu'ran. Really, is that all it took? This woman is an interest-charging money lender (which, apparently, is a big NO-NO as a Muslim) who runs a religious school for girls and raises her sons to be repo-man thugs but she's afraid to swear on the Qu'ran because of an accounting discrepancy? Score one for Nazneen and her growing independence!

OK, to be fair, Nazneen is supposed to be a woman who is passive. Her own mother left Nazneen's entrance into the world up to Fate and that fatalism is what she was raised on. But how she moved from that passivity into an affair with a younger man? Kind of muddy. And her decision to stand up to her husband and stay in the UK with the kids? Little murky. But why should I nitpick? Who knows why we do anything in this world?

Back to being unfair (because I was so bored by this book)...

If you read it, you'll actually end up sympathizing with her husband Chanu..seriously. If you've started reading the book, you will understand what I mean. I know he's supposed to be some idiot windbag who talks like a bigshot at home but deals with the disappointed fragments of his dreams outside the home, but do we need 200 pages of his pathetic flaps to understand this??? And, if one could isolate the number of sentences or paragraphs that concerned the corns on his feet, could there be about 20 pages? Is this the same "brilliant book about things that matter" that Ian Jack of Granta refers to? People! Puh-leeze give me a break!

THE ONE REALLY GOOD THING ABOUT THIS BOOK is the story about Nazneen's sister. She writes letters to her sister detailing her life in Dhaka. The character Hasina is everything that Nazneen is not: angry, sad, happy, determined, loving, and alive. Her life is amazing. The letters alone saved the book. However, even this was ruined by Monica Ali. Why did Hasina's letters need to be written in some strange broken English or literally translated Bengali? If we can view Nazneen's life through grammatically correct English, why can't we understand Hasina in something gramatically correct? Is this to emphasize her distance? Whatever. Weird and frustrating to read.
(less)

49 likes · like · see review

Aug 08, 2007 Nitya Sivasubramanian rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1star

I desperately wanted to like this book. Having lived the immigrant, foreigner, displaced person lifestyle for so long, I wanted this book to capture everything that it means to have lost links with my own personal history in the effort to fit into the culture that's welcomed me into it's monied bosom.

But Nazneen is not me. She's a village girl without education and more importantly, the confidence education brings to a traveller navigating a foreign world.

I snacked with her in the dead of night...more

13 likes · like · see review

Sep 24, 2012 Zaki rated it 1 of 5 stars

Monica Ali's writing is like a curry with too many cardamom seeds.

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 22, 2008 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, 2008

Nazneen is the eldest of two girls, growing up in a village in Bangladesh. Her younger sister Hasina runs away to marry the young man she is in love with, and not long after that, when she is eighteen, Nazneen is married to a man twenty years older than her and sent to live with him in London.

Her husband, Chanu, is kind and very talkative. They live in a dingy flat on an estate where she makes friends with some other Bangladeshi women. Her world is narrow and small, consisting of the flat and Br...more Nazneen is the eldest of two girls, growing up in a village in Bangladesh. Her younger sister Hasina runs away to marry the young man she is in love with, and not long after that, when she is eighteen, Nazneen is married to a man twenty years older than her and sent to live with him in London.

Her husband, Chanu, is kind and very talkative. They live in a dingy flat on an estate where she makes friends with some other Bangladeshi women. Her world is narrow and small, consisting of the flat and Brick Lane, where she walks one step behind her husband. She is not encouraged to learn English, or even leave the estate. But gradually she moves more and more into the world outside, though all that she knows is what Chanu tells her - and he "is an educated man", as he is constantly saying. They have three children, two girls after the first little boy dies, and some twelve years after she arrived in England she is swept up in an affair with a young man, Karim. Slowly, so slowly, she begins to speak for herself, but always there is this need to be a good, dutiful wife. To cut the skin around the corns on her husband's feet, to cook and keep the flat tidy, to be Chanu's audience as he lectures, to watch as his plans and ambitions fall flat one by one.

The story is told from Nazneen's perspective, sliced through with letters from her sister in Dhaka, whose story is easily more tragic. Nazneen, quiet and unknowledgable, is like a blank canvass for the opinions and impressions of others. When she asks a direct question, rarely is it answered. We see her world, small as it is though at times shaken by greater deeds (like nine-eleven), through her watchful, patient eyes. Many things are shown rather than told, making the real situation easily discernible and very rich and layered.

It is beautifully, skilfully written. A bit slow maybe, but with great impact. I can't deny that it didn't affect me, and bring me down a bit at times. The story slips into a secret place, shines a light on a place generally ignored and dismissed and undervalued: the housewife's domain and life. The politics, the aspirations, the hatred against Muslims, the clash of cultures and struggle to assimilate without abandoning your own culture, it's all there. But through it all there is strength in these women, and determination. The struggle Nazneen goes through, with her own conscience, her own desires and wants so long put aside, her fondness for the often revolting - but not cruel, no, he never beats her - Chanu (a surprisingly sympathetic character, in that it's easy to feel sorry for him), while gang wars and drug abuse and abusive husbands play out in both England and Bangladesh, all creates a vivid portrayal of an immigrant experience common to London, Paris, Sydney, Toronto. Relevant, topical, at times heartarchingly sad, Brick Lane is like Nazneen, watching silently, presenting a story without spoken judgement, biding its time, and at the end, so very very rewarding.(less)

6 likes · like · see review

May 21, 2010 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, india

I don't know why they do it but they do it a lot -

Brick Lane : A Novel

And there I was expecting this oblong of printed material to be

Brick Lane : A Plate of Spaghetti

Anyway. Other reviews would have you believe that this book is terrifically boring, beaten only for tediousness by Some Variations in the Major Groups of Plankton of the Kamchatka Peninsula Littoral by R.K. Litkynshovskaya and P.I. Podgorna-Bialaczczka. So why did I really enjoy this novel? Could it be that after a while I accepte...more

20 likes · like · see review

Jun 09, 2008 Dale rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book impressed me because of its immersiveness. Not only in terms of time and place, although that was very well handled, but mostly in terms of character. There are few modern human experiences that could be farther from my own than those of a woman born and raised in Bangladesh relocating to London after an arranged marriage to a man already living there. But I found the main character of Brick Lane, Nazneen, to be very relatable, to the point where I ended up totally immersed in her stor...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jan 23, 2008 Fatima rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: asiandiaspora, herstory, influential, fiction, post-college, kindle

$9.99 kindle
My favorite quotes from "Brick Lane" by Monica Ali

Amma said to her daughters: "If God wanted us to ask questions, he would have made us men" (53).

"Razia waved the lollipop in front of Raqib's [the toddler's:] face. He watched it devotedly. He became its disciple. For its sake, he would sacrifice everything" (65).

Hasina on corruption in Bangladeshi education: "University is also close down. All students hold protest. They rallying for right to cheat. In my heart I support. Some who af...more

7 likes · like · see review

Jan 03, 2008 Suhaila rated it 2 of 5 stars

As young Obi Wan asked "more pathetic lifeforms?". Zadie Smith in "White Teeth" writes about the immigrant experience with more absurdity, and with a whole lot more life than this author. Brick Lane is a domestic drama from an immigrant's experience. The letters from the protagonist's wayward long-suffering sister were probably meant to act as a counterpoint to our heroines struggle against the oppressive shackles of her life. Instead I found the heroine a letdown and her sister a fool. Without...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 03, 2008 Chris rated it 1 of 5 stars

I hated this book. I found it impossible to get through and this at a time when I was utterly obsessed with novels based in and around women from India. I couldn't finish it and am continually surprised to see it so favorably reviewed and praised. Usually I'm in agreement about a great book, but this one I just don't share the feelings on.
Although i see that other Good Reads readers felt similiarly, which somehow makes me feel better.

5 likes · like · see review

Feb 20, 2008 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

This was a pleasure to read. The characters are memorable and the story line superb. It does have a Dickens-like quality not only because the story takes place in London's East End but because the author's words transport you...

1 like · like · see review

Aug 16, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

An account of Bangladeshi immigrant life in London, a failing arranged marriage, a passionate affair between a pious wife and Islamic activist, and bi-cultural collisions. Rivals Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundati Roy.

ALMOST one of the most well-written books I've ever read. Monica Ali has a superb command of words. As I read, I kept saying to myself, I - nor anyone else - would ever think to construct that phrase quite the way she did!

However, the humor (while wry and excellent) is not as punchy as you'...more

1 like · like · see review

May 21, 2009 Harun Harahap rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pernah-punya, fiksi, terjemahan, middle-east-muslim

buku ni hasil bookswap kemaren..sepertinya punya Kang Amang..karena ada tulisannya dihalaman paling depan..kenapa tertarik buku ni??hmm..ga tau kayakna ni buku manggil2 nama gw..hehehehe..alasan..

ni buku bercerita tentang kehidupan sehari2 sebuah keluarga Bangladesh di sebuah kota di Inggris..Chanu sebagai kepala keluarga yang "berpendidikan" tapi banyak bicara..Nazneen sebagai istrinya yang harus menikahd alam usia muda dan diboyong ke Inggris dari Bangladesh dengan bermodalkan Sorry dan Thank...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 07, 2008 Dini rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, translation

Pinjaman dari Amang, yg dapat bukunya dari Monic. Setelah dapat wanti-wanti bahwa buku ini bikin bosan karena cuma berkutat pada masalah sehari-hari, saya pun mempersiapkan diri untuk bersabar membaca sampai tuntas. Meski ceritanya memang berpanjang-panjang dan awalnya terkesan membosankan tetapi semakin dibaca semakin penasaran bagaimana akhir kisah ini.

Nazneen, seorang gadis dari pedesaan Bangladesh dijodohkan dengan pria yang usianya dua kali lipat dari dirinya. Ia diboyong ke London, Inggris...more Pinjaman dari Amang, yg dapat bukunya dari Monic. Setelah dapat wanti-wanti bahwa buku ini bikin bosan karena cuma berkutat pada masalah sehari-hari, saya pun mempersiapkan diri untuk bersabar membaca sampai tuntas. Meski ceritanya memang berpanjang-panjang dan awalnya terkesan membosankan tetapi semakin dibaca semakin penasaran bagaimana akhir kisah ini.

Nazneen, seorang gadis dari pedesaan Bangladesh dijodohkan dengan pria yang usianya dua kali lipat dari dirinya. Ia diboyong ke London, Inggris dan menjalani hidup sebagai istri Muslim Bengali yang baik: mengerjakan pekerjaan rumah tangga, melayani suami, dan merawat anak. Nazneen yang selalu pasrah dan terima saja kemana arah takdir menuntunnya menjalani kehidupan yang berbeda jauh dengan adik perempuannya, Hasina, yang hidupnya seakan selalu dipermainkan takdir — kawin lari saat masih remaja kemudian pisah dari suaminya, melakukan berbagai pekerjaan dan selalu berpindah dari satu tempat ke tempat lain di Bangladesh. Hasina hanya muncul di cerita lewat surat-suratnya untuk Nazneen selama bertahun-tahun.

Karakter-karakter lain tampil dengan latar belakang kehidupan imigran Bangladesh di London: Chanu, suami Nazneen yang cuma bisa omong besar tapi tak pernah sukses, Razia, sahabat Nazneen yang penampilannya kebarat-baratan, Mrs. Islam sang wanita tua berprofesi lintah darat, dll. Perubahan besar kemudian terjadi pada Nazneen saat ia mengenal Karim, pemuda yang membentuk kelompok Muslim radikal di komunitas Bengali. Keduanya menjalin hubungan yang semakin membuat Nazneen berpikir akan jalan hidupnya selama ini. Akankah Nazneen akhirnya berani menentukan takdirnya sendiri? Pilihan apakah yang akan ia ambil, tetap bersama Karim atau kembali ke Bangladesh bersama suami dan anak-anaknya?

Ada berbagai paradoks yang saya temui dalam novel ini. Chanu yang berpendidikan tinggi gemar mengutip tokoh filsafat dan sastra Inggris tapi di lain waktu berkoar-koar mengenai kehebatan budaya Bangladesh. Nazneen pertama kali merasa begitu tertarik pada Karim saat melihatnya shalat (hal yang jarang dilakukan Chanu), tapi perasaan itu mendorong mereka menjalin hubungan yang dilarang agama. Keseharian Nazneen yang lempeng-lempeng saja dan tak pernah melawan arus dikontraskan dengan Hasina yang selalu terombang-ambing hidupnya namun berani mengambil keputusan sendiri. Selain menyajikan warna-warni budaya di Inggris novel ini juga sekilas menyinggung masalah pergerakan Islam radikal karena setting waktunya bertepatan dengan peristiwa 11 September di AS.

Untuk membaca novel ini dibutuhkan kesabaran ekstra, yang cukup terbayar karena lama kelamaan saya menjadi larut dalam kisahnya. Namun sepertinya Brick Lane adalah jenis novel yang tak cukup dibaca sendiri saja, melainkan lebih menarik dan membuka wawasan bila dijadikan bahan diskusi dengan sudut pandang jender, ras, agama, dan multikulturalisme. Saya jadi ingin flashback ke masa lalu, duduk di ruang kuliah dan berdiskusi seru dengan dosen dan kawan-kawan...(less)

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Jun 13, 2008 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Suckers for South Asian fiction in English

Our humble heroine, Nazneen, moves from her childhood rural village in Bangladesh to London for an arranged marriage and learns to love Western-style freedom among the misfits in her predominantly south-Asian housing estate. Or something like that. What makes the book a comfortable companion in the hour before bed is not so much our heroine's emergence into self-actualization (which begins rather late in the book, and feels like it was tacked on so that the author could sell the story to Hollywo...more

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 17, 2011 bookczuk rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookcrossing, first-novel-or-book

I know this book got a lot of good press, but I really wasn't that enchanted by it. I think that Monica Ali did a superb job in conveying the drabness of Nazneen's London world, her pompous and pitiful husband, and the narrowness of the society created by the Bangladeshi immigrants in the neighborhood...but I still didn't develop an affection or intimacy with any of the characters.

The tool of using letters from Nazneen's sister as a way of opening a window of fresh air into her stifling (is that...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 16, 2008 Annaliese rated it 1 of 5 stars

It's a bit draconian to give a book that sells so well only one star, but that's my rating for a book I don't make it through. I read a full third of this book waiting for the protagonist (Nanzeen) to be interesting and it didn't happen. The one highlight was the small window into Bengali/Pakistani culture (before chapter 2 moves to Britain). It's a book about fate and how one acts as a follower in life. And the exceedingly slow learning process Nanzeen goes through when she starts to discover s...more

5 likes · like · see review

May 28, 2007 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: indian-pakistani, bookclub, immigrant-experience, book-to-film, islam, fiction, london-calling

Brick Lane is the story of a uneducated woman from a small village in Bangladesh who moves to Brick Lane in London with her new husband after an arranged marriage. Like many other immigrant novels, this book touches on themes of culture clash and the struggle to adapt to the new country. The main character in "Brick Lane" initially feels that it is her fate to be the dutiful wife, living in her husband's shadow. She slowly begins to realize that she can be her own person.

The descriptions of the...more

2 likes · like · see review

Dec 07, 2009 Rossy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Certainly someone who enjoys Chic-lit/Women coming out of their shells

Recommended to Rossy by: Picked it up at the airport

Shelves: keepers, international, contemporary-women

I read this book a couple of years ago on a Turkish trip. Though i had lost the book, the story stayed with me. Nazneen's journey was engrossing. I honestly couldn't put it down until i was finished.

While packing my books today for a move, i noticed that all the books i have kept were those i have read many times. I knew this was one of those books and so i went on a search to see if i could find the author. I have to say these were the most accomplished 4 hours i spent. I'll be placing another...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 01, 2012 Lisetta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Si narra la storia di Nanzeen una donna come tante, che come tante non emerge per bellezza, il volto smagrito e quella fronte creata ampia ��per racchiudere tutte le preoccupazioni��. Una donna comune Nanzeen che, ancor prima di nascere ha il destino segnato. Infatti la sua storia ��: ��la storia come sei stata abbandonata al tuo destino��. Per questo la sua vita incarna l��esistenza che spetta a tante donne che come lei vengono educate alla sottomissione totale al marito.

Eppure la sua sto...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Lakshmi rated it 3 of 5 stars

This one was tough to rate. There were so many elements of the book that jumped out and touched the heart. Monica Ali does make the protagonist seem close to the reader. There is a shared intimacy where you begin to live her life, think her thoughts and see with her eyes.

However, what was incongruous in the book were the transitions. The evolution of Nazneen from passive wall flower to aggressive take charge mother and woman seemed drastic. While we can glean some evolution in her mind, it is st...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Nick D rated it 3 of 5 stars

In this, her first novel, Monica Ali tempted fate, setting up choice after choice for the heroine that could have drive home a point. A less careful and ambitious writer would have settled for one or more of them. Nazneen is plucked from her Bangladeshi village to marry a man who lives in the Bangladeshi expat community of London. Her sister runs away for love but is disillusioned over and over again. Nazneen's pompous but not unsympathetic husband mismanages his career, takes out usurious loans...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 25, 2013 BeccaAudra Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I sympathised with Nazneen to the point that when the narrative switched to her sister's letters I went crazy racing through them to get back to Nazneen. A lot of this was just that I was waiting for her to snap out of her coma and do something for herself. The slow burn epiphany of her life worked well for me though. I loved quite a few lines stand alone, like when she says a perfectly regular sentence but it's like this dazzling revelation to her that she is allowed to think this thought, whic...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Smcleish rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally published on my blog here in January 2005.

Since the success of Midnight's Children, there have been quite a few novels about the Indian subcontinent; but there are not so many about the experience of the immigrant community in the UK (or at least, not so many that are well known). The most obvious writer to compare Monical Ali to is Hanif Kureishi, but his novels portray very different people. Brick Lane is about the poorest of Bangladeshi immigrants, living in a rundown Whitechapel h...more Originally published on my blog here in January 2005.

Since the success of Midnight's Children, there have been quite a few novels about the Indian subcontinent; but there are not so many about the experience of the immigrant community in the UK (or at least, not so many that are well known). The most obvious writer to compare Monical Ali to is Hanif Kureishi, but his novels portray very different people. Brick Lane is about the poorest of Bangladeshi immigrants, living in a rundown Whitechapel housing estate, one of those places where each block seems to contain large numbers of people originating from the same village, huddled together as a way to shelter from the strangeness of urban London.

Nazneen has been sent over from Bangladesh in the early eighties to make an arranged marriage to a much older man, but one who prides himself on being advanced and modern (unlike some of the men, who hardly allow their wives to leave the home). Brick Lane is about how she comes to terms with the city, taking her story right up to the time of writing. Nazneen's life is compared with that of her sister, who remained in Bangladesh and who had a much harder time.

Brisk Lane is a much praised bestseller for a debut novel, and yet I did not feel it was as good as I expected it to be. Life in these estates is pretty grim (as I saw when I was a student in the area, and as I am sure Monica Ali knows full well). There are difficult times for the novels's characters - it climaxes in a riot - but they always seem to be more at arm's length than they should be. The setting is nothing like as bleak and certainly not as expressively conveyed as Zola's Paris, for example. This is partly because description in this novel is very sparse; Ali is concerned with Nazneen as a character to the exclusion of everything else, and she is (for me) too placid and passive to carry the novel. The subject matter is perhaps one reason for the success of Brick Lane - it's very much the sort of thing that is bound to be praised by the majority of the liberal community, and it obviously struck a chord with many readers. It didn't work so well for me, for some reason.(less)

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Nov 16, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book isn't really in my area. I normally read books in fantasy, romance, and sci-fi. But this book is amazing.

The story follows a young woman named Nazneen, a girl from a rural Bengladeshi village. When she is 18 her father marries her off to man in his forties, whom she has never met and is thus sent off to London.

This book is about Nazneen and her experiences with the culture shock of living in a very western country while living still in the cultural restrictions that she watched other w...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Sheila rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: coming-of-age, cultural, current_issues, relationships

An unspoilt girl from the village, new bride Nazneen is brought to England to live in London’s tower blocks. She stares out now at a very different village, through windows soiled by grime. Her husband finds her “satisfactory” and no one asks what she thinks. Meanwhile Nazneen's sister has married for love back in India, and no one seems to care what she thinks or experiences either.

Clipping nostril hair and corns for her spouse, cooking meals, learning to live with neighbors who each in their o...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 14, 2012 Bakhtiyar rated it 2 of 5 stars

I borrowed this book from my local library not only because of its appeal to me as a novel by a Bangladeshi-born writer, but also because I expected it to be decent novel, but I have to admit it was a let down. The beginning was promising, but I think towards the middle the story
got a bit too monotonous, and I found the psychological insights we are given into the mind of Nazneen a bit lacking. It also fails to capture all the complicated issues that South Asian immigrant women face when they ar...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Lyn Elliott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This is a remarkable first book. Ali explores issues of love and marriage in Bangladeshi society through the stories of the two sisters, one of whom runs away from her village home to marry a young man she loves, and the other who submits to arranged marriage to an older man living in England, which means she has to leave her home and everyone she knows behind her. Moving through isolation and depression, gradually realising that her husband is an ineffectual dreamer, the sister in London gradua...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Vicky rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am a big fan of Anglo-Indian authors (in this case Bangladeshi)and this one is no exception. This is Ali's first novel and it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It is such a human story, with well drawn and sympathetic characters, lyrical writing and a story that is as relevant now as it was in 2003. I would also like to recommend the movie version for the wonderful actors and beautiful cinematography. It is not often I like the movie version as much as the book, but in this case, I thi...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Katherine added it · review of another edition

This was an eminently readable novel. As I read it (on a long train journey that took me through London) I found myself transported into the lives of the characters, sympathizing with them and finding new understanding for the intricacies and intimacies involved in being an immigrant, torn between two cultures, a past and a present, memories, loyalties and comforts... It was a very enjoyable book and I have no real criticisms of it, I'd certainly recommend it. It was eye opening, but also very r...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Deb Oestreicher added it

A very good read, about two sisters, Nazneen and Hasina, from a village in Bangladesh. Hasina (the younger and more beautiful) elopes with a young man she loves, and loses the support of her family and community; Nazneen is shortly afterward married off to a much older man and joins him in London, where they live in the Bangladeshi neighborhood around Brick Lane. We learn about Hasina's life via her not-too-grammatical letters to her older sister; most of the story, though, is told from Nazneen'...more

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Can anyone suggest other nonfiction in the Indian-expats-in-europe or Muslim-expats-in-europe category?	13	52	Feb 24, 2013 10:14pm
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About Monica Ali

Monica Ali is a British writer of Bangladeshi origin. She is the author of Brick Lane, her debut novel, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003. Ali was voted Granta's Best of Young British Novelists on the basis of the unpublished manuscript.

She lives in South London with her husband, Simon Torrance, a management consultant. They have two children, Felix (born 1999) and...more

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Trivia About Brick Lane

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Quotes from Brick Lane

“Sometimes I look back and I am shocked. Everyday of my life I have prepared for success, worked for it, waited for it, and you don't notice how the days pass until nearly a lifetime is finished. Then it hits you--the thing you have been waiting for has already gone by. And it was going in the other direction. It's like I've been waiting on the wrong side of the road for a bus that was already full." p. 265” — 31 people liked it

“Apa yang tidak kuketahui-saat masih muda dulu-ada dua jenis cinta. Jenis yang bermula begitu dahsyatnya dan pelan-pelan menghilang, yang terasa seperti tak akan pernah habis lalu suatu hari tahu-tahu ludes. Lalu ada jenis yang tadinya tidak disadari, tetapi terus tumbuh sedikit demi sedikit setiap harinya, seperti kerang yang menghasilkan mutiara, bulir demi bulir, sebuah permata dari pasir.” — 12 people liked it

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