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Brick Lane cover art

Brick Lane

By: Monica Ali
Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre
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Summary

Nanzeen's inauspicious birth in a Bangladeshi village imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents. Married off to a man old enough to be her father, Nanzeen moves to London and cares for her family. But gradually she begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters and her new world.

While Nanzeen journeys along her path of self-realization, her sister, Hasina, rushes headlong at her life. Woven through the novel, Hasina's letters from Dhaka recount a world of overwhelming adversity. Shaped, yet not bound, by their landscapes and memories, both sisters struggle to dream, and live, beyond the rules prescribed for them.
©2003 Monica Ali (P)2003 HighBridge Company
Literary Fiction Historical Fiction Women's Fiction World Literature Romance
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Critic reviews

  • Audie Award Winner, Fiction (Abridged), 2004

"A humanely forgiving story about love...Brick Lane may be Ali's first novel, but it is written with a wisdom and skill that few other authors attain in a lifetime." (Sunday Times [London])
"Carefully observed and assured...its power residing in Ali's unsparing scrutiny of its hapless, hopeful protagonists." (Publishers Weekly)
"A splendid novel." (Atlantic Monthly)
"A sharp-witted tale...In Ali's subtle narration, Nazneen's mixture of traditionalism and adaptability, of acceptance and restlessness, emerges as a quiet strength." (The New Yorker)

What listeners say about Brick Lane

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Profile Image for Ian Chung

Captivating narration, but incomplete

I bought this audiobook to help with reading the book, so I was both confused and disappointed to see huge chunks of the original text missing in the recording. Narration is excellent though.

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Profile Image for Bizgen

Interesting view of Bangladeshi life in inhospitable London..

Great listen. A very interesting insight into the everyday life of a Bangladeshi woman brought to make a life in the East End of London. Tragic and funny by turns, with several threads cleverly interwoven, I found myself fascinated by this story, not the sort of tales I normally enjoy.

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