** spoiler alert ** Contemporary fiction about marriage and cultural differences. Amina, moves from Bangladesh to Rochester, NY to marry George, a staid engineer. The beginning of the book details their early marriage and Amina acculturation to America. In the later third of the novel, Amina travels back to Bangladesh to help her parents with their visas and immigration to the States (she has become an American citizen).

I really liked the first part of the novel and found Amina, a fascinating and sympathetic character. The story offers insights into contemporary dating (George and Amina meet on an online dating site), and power dynamics in relationships. When Amina returns to Bangladesh, I felt the story lost a lot of its power. I was less interested in the problems of her parents and Amina's attraction to Nasir, a close family friend she grew up with. Still I would recommend this book for readers who enjoy immigrant stories, learning about difference cultures, and stories about personal grow.

Favorite line: "Was there a person who existed beneath languages? That was the question. As a teenager, Amina had thought there was. She had thought that she'd been born with a soul whose thoughts were in no particular dialect, and she'd imagined that, when she married, her husband would be able to recognize this deep part of herself. She thought that this recognition was how she would recognize him.