Brick Lane

An epic yet intimate novel set in the Asian community in London’s East End, full of warm humour and strikingly imagined by Monica Ali.

Still a teenager, Nazneen finds herself in an arranged marriage with a disappointed man twenty years her senior. Away from the mud, heat and beauty of her Bangladeshi village, home is now a cramped flat in a high-rise block. Brick Lane explores the role of fate in our lives - those who accept it, those who defy it - by tracing the extraordinary transformation of a cautious and shy Asian girl to a bold and dignified woman.

"Admittedly, a first novel lets the writer learn her trade, and a reader shouldn't use it to hazard much in the way of prediction. Writers are prone to false starts and slumps, and some of them always run the same race, incapable of changing stride. It usually takes two or three books to establish their form -- and yet Monica Ali already has a sense of technical assurance and an inborn generosity that cannot be learned. Brick Lane inspires confidence about the career that is to come."  -  Michael Gorra, The New York Times

Longlisted for the 2004 Women's Prize For Fiction

Monica Ali was born Bangladesh, and grew up in England. Her first novel, Brick Lane, was nominated for the George Orwell Prize for political writing and the prestigious Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Further novels include Untold Story, In The Kitchen, and Alentejo Blue.