Product details
Biographical note
Monica Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and grew up in England. She is the author of Untold Story, In The Kitchen and Alentejo Blue. Her Sunday Times bestselling first novel Brick Lane was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the George Orwell Prize for political writing and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and has been made into an acclaimed film. Her latest novel Love Marriage is published by Virago.'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
'Monica Ali brings humour, grace and the special qualities of the best of Asian fiction to a narrative concerned with acceptance and denial...Wry and intelligent, subtle and graceful in its mix of formal prose, blackly despairing humour and fabulous characterization, this is a rich human novel'
Irish Times
'The kind of novel that surprises one with its depth and dash; it is a novel that will last'
Guardian
'A wonderful first novel. Ali's writing is stunning, almost poetic at times, and she has a beautifully inventive turn of phrase'
Mail on Sunday
'This highly evolved, accomplished book is a reminder of how exhilarating novels can be: it opened up a world whose contours I could recognize, but which I needed Monica Ali to make me understand'
Observer
'So uplifting as well as so important'
Daily Telegraph
***As dramatised on BBC Radio Four***
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
THE SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A RICHARD AND JUDY PICK
'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 GRANTA BEST OF BRITISH YOUNG NOVELIST
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD
'A brilliant evocation of sensuality' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'A novel that will last' GUARDIAN
'Highly evolved and accomplished' OBSERVER
Reader's love for BRICK LANE:
'Memorable and gripping' *****
'The kind of book that changes your perception of the world' *****
'This has become a classic and i can see why'*****
'Funny, sharp and very touching' *****
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELER
A RICHARD AND JUDY PICK
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.