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Brick Lane

Brick LaneA Novel

Written by

Monica Ali

Narrated by

Elizabeth Sastre

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Audiobook Download Information

Edition:
Abridged (HighBridge Company)
Length:
11 hours, 9 minutes
File Size:
306 MB (10 files)
Published:
September 2003

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Summary

Set in the gritty Tower Hamlets area of East London, Brick Laneis the story of Nazneen, an Asian immigrant girl and how she deals with issues of love, cultural differences and the human spirit. Nazneen is forced into an arranged marriage with a much older man whose expectations of life are miserably low. When they flee the oppression of their Bangladeshi village for a high-rise block in the East End, she finds herself cloistered and dependent on her husband. It soon becomes apparent that of the two, she is the real survivor and more able to deal with the ways of the world and the vagaries of human behavior. Through her friendship with another Asian girl, she begins to understand the unsettling ways of her new homeland.

Quotes from the Critics

"[A] fine debut....Ali was born in Bangladesh and raised in England, where BRICK LANE has been acclaimed, and rightly so: she is one of those dangerous writers who sees everything." - Kirkus

"Carefully observed and assured, the novel is free of pyrotechnics, its power residing in Ali's unsparing scrutiny of its hapless, hopeful protagonists." - Publishers Weekly

"BRICK LANE, Monica Ali's stunning debut, is both timeless and very much of the moment....Ali's mastery of her material is impressive. The world of the Bangladeshi diaspora...is vividly realised. Her satisfyingly complex characterization...borders on the Dickensian in its scope and eye for detail....It is enthralling; as a first novel it is exceptional." - Literary Review

"Chanu inevitably recalls V. S. Naipaul's Mr. Biswas. That's not a limitation. Chanu doesn't stop being himself, but he also belongs to a recognizable tradition, and so does BRICK LANE. Monica Ali has been compared to Zadie Smith, but the two have little in common beyond demographics. Smith's comedy is more frantic, and while her prose is exhilarating, it's also self-dramatizing. Ali's eloquence is more firmly restrained; the language of BRICK LANE seems both deliberately unflamboyant and metaphorically precise....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." - New York Times Book Review

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