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Seasonal Adjustments
An emigrant to Australia returns to Bangladesh.
- GenresBangladeshTravel
304 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1995
3 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Adib Khan
8 books4 followersAdib Khan is an Australian novelist of Bangladeshi origin. He moved to Australia in 1973 and obtained an MA from Monash University in 1976. He taught creative writing at Ballarat University, and in 2007 returned to Monash to pursue a PhD.
Khan started writing in his 40s and has published five novels. His first novel, Seasonal Adjustments won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the Book of the Year award in the 1994 NSW Premier′s Literary Awards, and the 1995 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, and was also shortlisted for the 1994 Age Book of the Year award.
Solitude of Illusions was shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, and the Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in the 1997 NSW Premier′s Literary Awards. It won the 1997 Tilly Aston Braille Book of the Year Award.
Khan started writing in his 40s and has published five novels. His first novel, Seasonal Adjustments won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the Book of the Year award in the 1994 NSW Premier′s Literary Awards, and the 1995 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, and was also shortlisted for the 1994 Age Book of the Year award.
Solitude of Illusions was shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, and the Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in the 1997 NSW Premier′s Literary Awards. It won the 1997 Tilly Aston Braille Book of the Year Award.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 17, 2021
A thought provoking account of someone who has integrated aspects of two cultures and the self searching that results from conflicting feelings and rational observations. Written in a very sensitive manner yet at times the text is extremely humorous.
December 6, 2014
It's a rare treat to find an English language book that offers Bangladesh cultural insights. In the novel Seasonal Adjustments, Adir Khan introduces us to Iqbal Chaudhary who has been out of the country for 18 years when a personal crises drives him to return to his boyhood home along with his young daughter. This book offers a rewarding story of Mr. Chaudhary's personal growth, and as a side benefit we get to experience Bangladesh culture filtered through the recesses of his memory as well as his new Australian perspective.
It's difficult to leave home, and even harder with the tight bonds of the well-off Chaudhary family. His internal struggles starts there, but add to that the baggage of leaving friends who suffered through the Independence war and its aftermath, and pile on top of that a troubled marriage. He has many things to sort out in his return home. Besides these internal struggles, there are many other difficult things that we experience through his eyes. He is, for example, often torn by his memories of the shaman yet is forced to deal with the same man who his family still relies upon.
As he travels through the area, we experience how poverty drives people to do things that shock him and us. Time and again we get to see him contrast his cultural understanding with his new western outlook. For example, he knows the cultural drivers for how women are treated, yet he can contrast it with how this behavior wouldn't be tolerated in Australia. Seasonal Adjustments presents a fulfilling story of personal anguish and growth and complements it with a sharp eye towards Bangladesh vs western culture.
It's difficult to leave home, and even harder with the tight bonds of the well-off Chaudhary family. His internal struggles starts there, but add to that the baggage of leaving friends who suffered through the Independence war and its aftermath, and pile on top of that a troubled marriage. He has many things to sort out in his return home. Besides these internal struggles, there are many other difficult things that we experience through his eyes. He is, for example, often torn by his memories of the shaman yet is forced to deal with the same man who his family still relies upon.
As he travels through the area, we experience how poverty drives people to do things that shock him and us. Time and again we get to see him contrast his cultural understanding with his new western outlook. For example, he knows the cultural drivers for how women are treated, yet he can contrast it with how this behavior wouldn't be tolerated in Australia. Seasonal Adjustments presents a fulfilling story of personal anguish and growth and complements it with a sharp eye towards Bangladesh vs western culture.
December 10, 2014
It's a rare treat to find an English language book that offers Bangladesh cultural insights. In the novel Seasonal Adjustments, Adir Khan introduces us to Iqbal Chaudhary who has been out of the country for 18 years when a personal crises drives him to return to his boyhood home along with his young daughter. This book offers a rewarding story of Mr. Chaudhary's personal growth, and as a side benefit we get to experience Bangladesh culture filtered through the recesses of his memory as well as his new Australian perspective.
It's difficult to leave home, and even harder with the tight bonds of the well-off Chaudhary family. His internal struggles starts there, but add to that the baggage of leaving friends who suffered through the Independence war and its aftermath, and pile on top of that a troubled marriage. He has many things to sort out in his return home. Besides these internal struggles, there are many other difficult things that we experience through his eyes. He is, for example, often torn by his memories of the shaman yet is forced to deal with the same man who his family still relies upon.
As he travels through the area, we experience how poverty drives people to do things that shock him and us. Time and again we get to see him contrast his cultural understanding with his new western outlook. For example, he knows the cultural drivers for how women are treated, yet he can contrast it with how this behavior wouldn't be tolerated in Australia. Seasonal Adjustments presents a fulfilling story of personal anguish and growth and complements it with a sharp eye towards Bangladesh vs western culture.
It's difficult to leave home, and even harder with the tight bonds of the well-off Chaudhary family. His internal struggles starts there, but add to that the baggage of leaving friends who suffered through the Independence war and its aftermath, and pile on top of that a troubled marriage. He has many things to sort out in his return home. Besides these internal struggles, there are many other difficult things that we experience through his eyes. He is, for example, often torn by his memories of the shaman yet is forced to deal with the same man who his family still relies upon.
As he travels through the area, we experience how poverty drives people to do things that shock him and us. Time and again we get to see him contrast his cultural understanding with his new western outlook. For example, he knows the cultural drivers for how women are treated, yet he can contrast it with how this behavior wouldn't be tolerated in Australia. Seasonal Adjustments presents a fulfilling story of personal anguish and growth and complements it with a sharp eye towards Bangladesh vs western culture.
December 9, 2015
a book to be remembered for many years, and for me it is about not just Australian/Bangladesi culture encounters, but about social / geographical encounters in general and how little it would actually take but an honest interest to increase mutual understanding.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews