Monica Ali · 2003 · exile

Monica Ali's 2003 novel. Nazneen is married at eighteen from her Bangladeshi village to a much older man and brought to a council estate off Brick Lane in London's East End. Over years in the Bengali community there - raising daughters, a love affair, her sister's letters from home - she moves from passive acceptance to a hard-won independence in a city that was never her choice.

1. 1
   Gouripur

   The Bangladeshi village where Nazneen is born and married off at eighteen to Chanu, a much older man, and sent across the world to a country she has never seen.

2. 2
   London

   The council estate off Brick Lane in the East End, where Nazneen builds a life in the Bengali community, raises her daughters, and slowly finds her own independence.