The New York City Gracie Book Club’s inauguarl pick, this vibrant debut novel set in Brooklyn and Bangladesh follows three young women and a 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 parents’ murder and afflicted with hallucinations at dusk, she has 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 Charu’s friend Maya—an Islamic cleric’s runaway daughter—asleep in her bedroom.
As the girls have a summer of clandestine adventure and sexual awakenings, Anwar, the owner of a popular botanical apothecary, has 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.
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“With great energy, Soneela Nankani performs this audiobook so beautifully that the listener is transported to the Saleem home in Brooklyn. This is a family story filled with complex relationships; Nankani makes all these clear with her vocal flexibility…Nankani balances the lyrical Bangladeshi accents of many of her characters with a perfectly paced narration that connects the lively conversations. This audiobook provides an excellent look at the lives of family members who are dealing with change, questions of identity, and conflicts large and small. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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