Monica Ali’s first novel, Brick Lane, was published in 2003 and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The story follows Nazneen as she grows up in a village in Bangladesh before moving to London in an arranged marriage to someone double her age. Chanu is a good man but full of bluster and certainly not the one she would have chosen for herself. While raising two children, Chanu decides that living on the lower end of British society is not for him and wants the family to move back to Bangladesh.
The rest of the family is resistant, while Nanzeen looks for a life outside of the marriage. Part of the book deals with Nanzeen’s sister who stayed in Bangladesh and lives a very different life. That part of the story that takes up sections of the book was not as compelling and at times took away from the main story. Overall, it is an interesting look into a world that some of us would not normally see.
7/10
The Light Appears 