Named a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, and the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award
ONE OF THE CUTтАЩS 13 BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS CELEBRATING PRIDE MONTH
тАЬA Brooklyn-by-way-of-Bangladesh Royal Tenenbaums.тАЭтАФThe Denver Post
A vibrant debut novel, set in Brooklyn and Bangladesh, follows three young women and one family struggling to make peace with secrets and their past
For as long as she can remember, Ella has longed to feel at home. Orphaned as a child after her parentsтАЩ murder, and afflicted with hallucinations at dusk, sheтАЩs always felt more at ease in nature than with people. She traveled from Bangladesh to Brooklyn to live with the Saleems: her uncle Anwar, aunt Hashi, and their beautiful daughter, Charu, her complete opposite. One summer, when Ella returns home from college, she discovers CharuтАЩs friend MayaтАФan Islamic clericтАЩs runaway daughterтАФasleep in her bedroom.┬а
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As the girls have a summer of clandestine adventure and sexual awakenings, AnwarтАФowner of a popular botanical apothecaryтАФhas his own secrets, threatening his thirty-year marriage. But when tragedy strikes, the Saleems find themselves blamed. To keep his family from unraveling, Anwar takes them on a fated trip to Bangladesh, to reckon with the past, their extended family, and each other.