A humanely forgiving story about love... Brick Lane may be Ali's first novel, but it is written with a wisdom and skill that few authors attain in a lifetime.

Hailed by the London Observer as "one of the most significant British novelists of her generation," Monica Ali has written a stunningly accomplished debut about one outsider"s quest to find her voice.

Nazneen, raised in a Bangladeshi village, carries her sense of fatalism across continents to London, where she is married off to Chanu, a man old enough to be her father. For years she keeps house, cares for her husband, and bears children. But gradually she questions whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. To her own amazement, Nazneen falls in love with a young man. She discovers the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters, and her new world.

Profoundly humane and beautifully rendered, Brick Lane captures a world at once unimaginable and achingly familiar.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Acknowledgments