the real east enders

if you liked White Teeth by Zadie Smith or The Namesake by Jumpa Lahiri, have i got a book for you!

Brick Lane by Monica Ali was another one of those books i had picked up on numerous occassions but finally purchased on one of my recent visits to heathrow airport.

the story of a bengladeshi woman, nazneen, who moves to a country where she can't speak the language (england) and then sets about making her own nest resonated with me with each turn of the page. i could completely relate with how she gets to know herself, her husband, and her new home throughout the course of the story.

sometimes books just come into your life at the right time.

i love stories where the setting is a character of itself and this is one of them. it depicts a london that i have never known and that i couldn't know as an outsider. but this book, by refusing to apologise for its characters or their beliefs, lets you into the brick lane bangladeshi community.

and finally, i read a book where i liked the main character! my opinions of many of the other characters in the book, including nazneen's husband and children, changed as the story progressed, a testament to the depth of the characters and writing.

i just hope the movie does the book justice.