This
novel by Monica Ali about life in the eastend of London
has now been made into a film by Sarah Gavron
Nazneen's
life is turned upside down at the tender age of seventeen,.
Forced into an arranged marriage to an older man, she
exchanges her Bangladeshi village home for a block of
flats in London's East End. In this new world, pining
for her home and her sister, she struggles to make sense
of her existence - and to do her duty to her husband.
A man of inflated ideas (and stomach), he sorely tests
her compliance.
Told
from birth that she must not fight her fate, Nazneen
submits, devoting her life to raising her family and
slapping down her demons of discontent. Until the day
that Karim, a hot-headed local man, bursts into her
life.
Against
a background of escalating racial tension, they embark
on an affair that finally forces Nazneen to take control
of her life. Set in multicultural Britain, Brick Lane
is a truly contemporary story of love, cultural difference,
and ultimately, the strength of the human spirit.
