Still in her teenage years, Nazneen finds herself in an arranged marriage with a disappointed man who is twenty years older. Away from the mud and heat of her Bangladeshi village, home is now a cramped flat in a high-rise block in London’s East End. Nazneen knows not a word of English, and is forced to depend on her husband. But unlike him she is practical and wise, and befriends a fellow Asian girl Razia, who helps her understand the strange ways of her adopted new British home. Nazneen keeps in touch with her sister Hasina back in the village. But the rebellious Hasina has kicked against cultural tradition and run off in a ‘love marriage’ with the man of her dreams.
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MONICA ALI (Bangladesh, 1967), filla de pare anglès i mare hindú. La família Ali va emigrar a la Gran Bretanya i es va instal·lar a la petita comunitat bengalina de Bolton. Després de graduar-se en Filosofia, Política i Economia per la Universitat d?Oxford, va treballar en el món de la publicitat i no va ser fins al naixement del seu segon fill que va decidir posar-se a escriure. Abans que el llibre sortís a la venda ja havia estat seleccionada per la revista Granta com un dels millors escriptors britànics menors de quaranta anys del 2003.