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Bright Lines
A vibrant debut novel, set in Brooklyn and Bangladesh, Bright Lines 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 parents’ murder, and afflicted with hallucinations at dusk, she’s 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—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.
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’s 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—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.
296 pages, Paperback
First published August 11, 2015
57 people are currently reading
4273 people want to read
About the author
Tanwi Nandini Islam
3 books136 followersTanwi Nandini Islam is the author of Bright Lines (Penguin 2015), a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Edmund White Debut Fiction Award, the Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, and the inaugural selection of the First Lady of NYC's Gracie Book Club. Nandini Islam is the founder of Hi Wildflower Botanica, a small-batch perfume and candle line. A graduate of Brooklyn College MFA and Vassar College, she lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews
October 14, 2015
Everything I love //
Brooklyn, Bangladesh, botany, sexuality, taboos
In one home.
I'm a tad partial, of course.
September 15, 2015
This debut novel is a kind of game-changer for me. I was interested to know what it must be like for Islamic immigrants settling in New York City, but came away thinking I was the one adjusting to life in a strange country. The experience of reading this debut is very New York but it is something else, too. It is so far from the lives of middle-America that we may not recognize it as organic growth, like a seed wrapped in a soil “bomb” of wetted soil and clay and tossed from a speeding bicycle. We knew that American consciousness had changed, what with the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts in 2004, the election of a black man to the office of President of the United States in 2008, and the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana in Colorado in 2012. But I did not know how changed it had become until I read this book.
At first, I don’t mind saying, I thought this book was too long. There were too many words, too many interactions. But as the outline of the story became clear I realized I would not know what to cut without destroying the careful grooming of our sensibilities. It takes some time to come to the realization that while this is fiction and therefore not strictly true, it is real enough to require us to adjust our perceptions of what we thought we knew about the world. That is a big job for a debut.
The novel itself describes a family of Bangladeshi immigrants to New York City. They live in a reclaimed four-story brownstone in Brooklyn; the father rents a storefront (the awning of which he paints lavender in the opening scene) from a Muslim religious cleric and in which he has established Anwar’s Apothecary. He sells homemade jojoba shampoos, bars of lavender soaps, and beauty products, among other substances that capitalize on his ability to extract essences. Anwar’s wife, Hashi, uses the garden apartment of their brownstone as a hair salon specializing in wedding parties. One daughter, Ella, is a sophomore at Cornell’s Agricultural School and the other, Charu, is just turning eighteen and something of an entrepreneur designer/seamstress. She makes clothes and hijabs (“protective and beautiful rooms, just for one”) out of old saris and other unusual fabrics for fun and extra cash. She plans to attend NYU in the fall.
One immediately senses the enormous vitality in such a family. But a family is just a family after all, with all the complications and stressors two post-adolescent but unmarried daughters pose to a household. To add to the complexity, the college-aged daughter of the religious cleric from whom Anwar rents his storefront has run away from home and comes to stay at the Saleem’s brownstone, unbeknownst to her own father, a brutal man with an ungovernable anger and a pure sense of rightness.
My introduction cannot prepare the reader for that summer (2003) in New York with the Saleems. Bicycles, sex, pot, religious fervor, gay pride, family hatreds, night-opening flowers, silk saris, infidelity, hallucinations, lentils, heirloom seeds, weddings, mistakes, indelible friendships, forgiveness, real love, firebombs, and growing up are all on the table. It is a cornucopia that only immersion can satisfy. One may come away thinking, as I did, that one’s perception of the world has changed irrevocably.
A couple of interesting and useful things Tanwi Islam taught me include the phrase maya lage which means something like "feeling empathy and sympathy and love and hurt—all in one…It was fitting whether someone’s house foreclosed or an earthquake claims thousands of lives." In Buddhist and Hindu traditions the Goddess Maya is the Mother of Creation, and is believed to manifest Nature simply by the power of Her will. Hers is a truth that lies far beyond the veil of our existence. The name Maya literally means "illusion" and is associated with magic. You’ll understand all this much more when you finish Islam’s novel, when all is revealed.
Islam also introduced me to two writers I’d not heard of before: Tarfia Faizullah and Taslima Nasrin. In the beginning to Part II, entitled “The Black Forest”, Islam credits three stanzas from “Dhaka Nocturne” that stopped me in my tracks:
Any book that insists itself upon my consciousness as much as this book has deserves some attention. I expect we have not heard the last of Tanwi Nandini Islam and I can only celebrate that fact.
At first, I don’t mind saying, I thought this book was too long. There were too many words, too many interactions. But as the outline of the story became clear I realized I would not know what to cut without destroying the careful grooming of our sensibilities. It takes some time to come to the realization that while this is fiction and therefore not strictly true, it is real enough to require us to adjust our perceptions of what we thought we knew about the world. That is a big job for a debut.
The novel itself describes a family of Bangladeshi immigrants to New York City. They live in a reclaimed four-story brownstone in Brooklyn; the father rents a storefront (the awning of which he paints lavender in the opening scene) from a Muslim religious cleric and in which he has established Anwar’s Apothecary. He sells homemade jojoba shampoos, bars of lavender soaps, and beauty products, among other substances that capitalize on his ability to extract essences. Anwar’s wife, Hashi, uses the garden apartment of their brownstone as a hair salon specializing in wedding parties. One daughter, Ella, is a sophomore at Cornell’s Agricultural School and the other, Charu, is just turning eighteen and something of an entrepreneur designer/seamstress. She makes clothes and hijabs (“protective and beautiful rooms, just for one”) out of old saris and other unusual fabrics for fun and extra cash. She plans to attend NYU in the fall.
One immediately senses the enormous vitality in such a family. But a family is just a family after all, with all the complications and stressors two post-adolescent but unmarried daughters pose to a household. To add to the complexity, the college-aged daughter of the religious cleric from whom Anwar rents his storefront has run away from home and comes to stay at the Saleem’s brownstone, unbeknownst to her own father, a brutal man with an ungovernable anger and a pure sense of rightness.
My introduction cannot prepare the reader for that summer (2003) in New York with the Saleems. Bicycles, sex, pot, religious fervor, gay pride, family hatreds, night-opening flowers, silk saris, infidelity, hallucinations, lentils, heirloom seeds, weddings, mistakes, indelible friendships, forgiveness, real love, firebombs, and growing up are all on the table. It is a cornucopia that only immersion can satisfy. One may come away thinking, as I did, that one’s perception of the world has changed irrevocably.
A couple of interesting and useful things Tanwi Islam taught me include the phrase maya lage which means something like "feeling empathy and sympathy and love and hurt—all in one…It was fitting whether someone’s house foreclosed or an earthquake claims thousands of lives." In Buddhist and Hindu traditions the Goddess Maya is the Mother of Creation, and is believed to manifest Nature simply by the power of Her will. Hers is a truth that lies far beyond the veil of our existence. The name Maya literally means "illusion" and is associated with magic. You’ll understand all this much more when you finish Islam’s novel, when all is revealed.
Islam also introduced me to two writers I’d not heard of before: Tarfia Faizullah and Taslima Nasrin. In the beginning to Part II, entitled “The Black Forest”, Islam credits three stanzas from “Dhaka Nocturne” that stopped me in my tracks:
I admit that when the falling hourThe other reference, Taslima Nasrin, is mentioned later in the context of the suppression of writings from women by religious radicals. She is a former physician and poet whose feminist writings have been banned in her native Bangladesh, India, Pakistan…anywhere Islamic fundamentalist views prevail. A fatwa has been issued against her and she now lives temporarily in the United States for her protection.
begins to husk the sky free of its
saffroning light, I reach for anyone
willing to wrap his good arm right
around me for as long as the ribboned
darkness allows. Who wants, after all,
to be seen too clearly?
--Tarfia Faizullah, from "Dhaka Nocturne," Seam
Any book that insists itself upon my consciousness as much as this book has deserves some attention. I expect we have not heard the last of Tanwi Nandini Islam and I can only celebrate that fact.
August 7, 2015
As college grows more distant in my life’s rear-view mirror, my patience for subtlety in literature dwindles. Since reading is no longer “work” for me, I have trouble muscling up the gumption for novels that require a lot of their readers. Especially this summer, I have been hungry for page-turning, plot-driven novels with twists and turns and sordid secrets.
So maybe it’s a case of right book, wrong time. Even though I enjoyed it, Bright Lines was a bit too cautious for me, deliberate when I craved speed, understated when I wanted an explosion. The supposed big reveal at the end had an effect more like the pop of a cap gun than the reverberation of a well-timed bomb.
The bones of the book are solid. Ella and Charu are cousins, raised as sisters since Ella’s parents were killed when she was a child. Charu’s parents, Anwar and Hashi, brought Ella to live with them in Brooklyn, a different world from her native Bangladesh. The book weaves together several different strands that together make up the family’s life: Ella’s struggle to understand and embody her unique gender and sexual identity, Charu’s efforts to numb the pain of loss with physical intimacy, and Anwar’s bumbling attempts to make himself and his family happy while guarding—and possibly flat-out ignoring—hard truths from his past. Clearly, there’s plenty of drama and intrigue here, but for some reason I didn’t feel the intended impact.
I don’t think I’ve lost my appreciation for nuance entirely. I’m sure my mood will cycle back around, and I’ll be craving happy sigh-inducing sentences and complex prose again in good time. For now, I’m not going to fight against the impulse for more commercial, fast-paced fiction. All reading is good reading, right?
With regards to Penguin and NetGalley for the advance copy. On sale August 11.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
So maybe it’s a case of right book, wrong time. Even though I enjoyed it, Bright Lines was a bit too cautious for me, deliberate when I craved speed, understated when I wanted an explosion. The supposed big reveal at the end had an effect more like the pop of a cap gun than the reverberation of a well-timed bomb.
The bones of the book are solid. Ella and Charu are cousins, raised as sisters since Ella’s parents were killed when she was a child. Charu’s parents, Anwar and Hashi, brought Ella to live with them in Brooklyn, a different world from her native Bangladesh. The book weaves together several different strands that together make up the family’s life: Ella’s struggle to understand and embody her unique gender and sexual identity, Charu’s efforts to numb the pain of loss with physical intimacy, and Anwar’s bumbling attempts to make himself and his family happy while guarding—and possibly flat-out ignoring—hard truths from his past. Clearly, there’s plenty of drama and intrigue here, but for some reason I didn’t feel the intended impact.
I don’t think I’ve lost my appreciation for nuance entirely. I’m sure my mood will cycle back around, and I’ll be craving happy sigh-inducing sentences and complex prose again in good time. For now, I’m not going to fight against the impulse for more commercial, fast-paced fiction. All reading is good reading, right?
With regards to Penguin and NetGalley for the advance copy. On sale August 11.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
September 25, 2017
Way too much sexual tension between family members. I have literally no idea what I just read.
May 21, 2018
I really wanted to like this, but I just couldn't get that into it.
This felt like a great first draft of a novel. The bones are there, but it needed some editing.
Where this book really shines is with atmosphere. Nandini Islam makes Brooklyn and Bangladesh come to life. Setting is probably this books strongest asset.
I think had the book focused primarily on El, who's story is the strongest narrative throughout, I would have loved it. If this book had been primarily a queer coming of age story wit trans rep, I would have LOVED it.
Unfortunately, it felt like the majority of the book was focused on Anwar, who is the least compelling character in the whole book.
This felt like a great first draft of a novel. The bones are there, but it needed some editing.
Where this book really shines is with atmosphere. Nandini Islam makes Brooklyn and Bangladesh come to life. Setting is probably this books strongest asset.
I think had the book focused primarily on El, who's story is the strongest narrative throughout, I would have loved it. If this book had been primarily a queer coming of age story wit trans rep, I would have LOVED it.
Unfortunately, it felt like the majority of the book was focused on Anwar, who is the least compelling character in the whole book.
May 7, 2016
It was a pretty good book that kept me more or less engaged throughout. Honestly, if I were not required to read this for a work training course, I probably would not have picked this one up; but it's good that I read something I normally wouldn't and I didn't think it was a waste of time. I learned a lot about Bangladesh that I never knew before, though there is much in the book about the different tribes, peoples, and places that were never made clear for me (due to my lack of founding knowledge).
The characters were developed...enough. I never felt like any of the characters had their own strong and unique voices. They all seemed to have the same voice but spoke in that voice relative to their own role in the action. The majority of the men in this book were pretty loathsome: Anwar (sorry I don't forgive him), Renwan (seemed pretty cold and superficial to Hawa), Stalin (really?) and Aman.
Sex and sexuality played big roles in this story but were never thought of critically. To Anwar, rape is one of the worst crimes a person can commit, and rightfully so. But apparently there is no problem with him experiencing his mistress Ramona solely as a sexual object. I believe he even says something along the lines of: I never really wanted to talk to her I just wanted to f--- her. This same thinking is what allows men to rape without remorse. I'm not even totally convinced their sexual encounters were entirely consensual since he is the landlord of Ramona's home, into which he barges in and throws himself on her (unfortunately for Anwar, after she shares some of her backstory). Quite the power imbalance.
The relationship between power and sex (sexuality and biological identity) is hinted at but a strong comment never arises. The author really missed her chance to make a comment on sexism in Muslim societies with Ella/El. El experiences "liberation" through her transition from identifying as a woman to man. Well that's no surprise considering how confined Maya, Charu, and the other Muslim women in Bangladesh are due to their sex and the male sex's apparently uncontrollable attraction to them. Charu is supposedly visually eaten up by the men who see her in Bangladesh--because of her sex. Maya cannot leave her father to go to college--because of her sex. As a man, or someone who can pass as a member of the male sex (mostly because she's not beautiful and has short hair), Ella does not have to worry about covering her body. She will be treated with the same respect and authority that men do.
For a woman to be liberated, she must deny her biology. I hate that message! There is nothing superior to men. The women in this novel are far more admirable than the men (such as Hawa, though her strict denial of her daughter's sexuality and punishing it by hitting Charu in the face with a hose is rather deplorable, and Maya) who have all the privilege to act and experience their sexuality as they please. Charu has a minor eating disorder at some point in the novel (which kind of never amounts to anything) which at least the other characters recognize as a problem. Why is hating your body acceptable for El and not for Charu? They are both unhealthy. El apparently "becomes" Anwar and Rezwan or something after having an orgasm. I don't know. Perhaps this was the author's "reason" for making El transgender, but I couldn't grasp that. El literally has traumatic episodes due to her past in Bangladesh and to claim she is now inhabited or experiences the lives and thoughts of two other men just sounds like further escapism and kind of delusion? One of the themes in this book is "escaping to return" or "escaping to better understand where you came from" but El seems abused by this theme, and honestly never really understands where she came from (symbolized by her not knowing the location of her parents' graves).
But anyway, it was an entertaining and engaging read. There are a few twists that keep it exciting at the end. And it'll probably be a good book for a book discussion, for which I had to read this.
The characters were developed...enough. I never felt like any of the characters had their own strong and unique voices. They all seemed to have the same voice but spoke in that voice relative to their own role in the action. The majority of the men in this book were pretty loathsome: Anwar (sorry I don't forgive him), Renwan (seemed pretty cold and superficial to Hawa), Stalin (really?) and Aman.
Sex and sexuality played big roles in this story but were never thought of critically. To Anwar, rape is one of the worst crimes a person can commit, and rightfully so. But apparently there is no problem with him experiencing his mistress Ramona solely as a sexual object. I believe he even says something along the lines of: I never really wanted to talk to her I just wanted to f--- her. This same thinking is what allows men to rape without remorse. I'm not even totally convinced their sexual encounters were entirely consensual since he is the landlord of Ramona's home, into which he barges in and throws himself on her (unfortunately for Anwar, after she shares some of her backstory). Quite the power imbalance.
The relationship between power and sex (sexuality and biological identity) is hinted at but a strong comment never arises. The author really missed her chance to make a comment on sexism in Muslim societies with Ella/El. El experiences "liberation" through her transition from identifying as a woman to man. Well that's no surprise considering how confined Maya, Charu, and the other Muslim women in Bangladesh are due to their sex and the male sex's apparently uncontrollable attraction to them. Charu is supposedly visually eaten up by the men who see her in Bangladesh--because of her sex. Maya cannot leave her father to go to college--because of her sex. As a man, or someone who can pass as a member of the male sex (mostly because she's not beautiful and has short hair), Ella does not have to worry about covering her body. She will be treated with the same respect and authority that men do.
For a woman to be liberated, she must deny her biology. I hate that message! There is nothing superior to men. The women in this novel are far more admirable than the men (such as Hawa, though her strict denial of her daughter's sexuality and punishing it by hitting Charu in the face with a hose is rather deplorable, and Maya) who have all the privilege to act and experience their sexuality as they please. Charu has a minor eating disorder at some point in the novel (which kind of never amounts to anything) which at least the other characters recognize as a problem. Why is hating your body acceptable for El and not for Charu? They are both unhealthy. El apparently "becomes" Anwar and Rezwan or something after having an orgasm. I don't know. Perhaps this was the author's "reason" for making El transgender, but I couldn't grasp that. El literally has traumatic episodes due to her past in Bangladesh and to claim she is now inhabited or experiences the lives and thoughts of two other men just sounds like further escapism and kind of delusion? One of the themes in this book is "escaping to return" or "escaping to better understand where you came from" but El seems abused by this theme, and honestly never really understands where she came from (symbolized by her not knowing the location of her parents' graves).
But anyway, it was an entertaining and engaging read. There are a few twists that keep it exciting at the end. And it'll probably be a good book for a book discussion, for which I had to read this.
December 30, 2015
A Brooklyn-by-way-of-Bangladesh "Royal Tenenbaums." A pot-tinged, PTSD Muslim "Sesame Street." With sex. Hallucinations, hijabs and handlebars on the always-busy Atlantic Avenue.
Read my full review at denverpost.com.
Read my full review at denverpost.com.
September 13, 2015
I really wanted to like it. The story of a family set in both New York and Bangladesh tells the tale of several family members with their loves, hidden desires, work, struggles and more. Ella/El and Charu are cousins raised as siblings after the death of Ella/El's parents. Charu's parents, Anwar and Hashi, make a living in their brownstone. Maya is a young woman who comes to stay with the family after a severe falling out with her father.
To be honest, this was a struggle. It takes quite a while to figure out where this story is going and what the conflict is. It turns out it's a bunch of interwoven problems that run in this family but it takes a really long time to get there. Ella/El is sorting out sexuality and gender identity. Charu is struggling with being a young woman on the cusp of leaving home. Hashi and Anwar have been married for a long time, and quite frankly all that's keeping them together is probably tradition than anything else. Maya has her own problems.
This sounded like a great stew for a plot but I felt it was tough to get into. There are shifts in character points of view and while it didn't jar me as badly as with other books, I think it again lends to a loss of momentum and made it much harder overall to get into the heads of the characters. It sounded like a really great premise (also I don't think I've read any book set in Bangladesh for an extended period of time) but it didn't really work for me. It needed tighter editing and maybe a focus on just one character or at least cutting out the focuses on a couple of them or moving it to an omniscient narrator.
In some ways it reminded me of Matthew Thomas's 'We Are Not Ourselves' which tells the story of a family (over a longer period of time), but that book benefited from really only focusing on one character for most of the book with an epilogue focused on another at the end. It also mostly focused on the family, with friends popping up here and there. Here in 'Bright Lines' some characters get some focus but I think could have benefited from being cut down or out completely.
That said, it is a debut and I managed to get an ARC free from someone giving it away. I'd recommend this for a library borrow.
To be honest, this was a struggle. It takes quite a while to figure out where this story is going and what the conflict is. It turns out it's a bunch of interwoven problems that run in this family but it takes a really long time to get there. Ella/El is sorting out sexuality and gender identity. Charu is struggling with being a young woman on the cusp of leaving home. Hashi and Anwar have been married for a long time, and quite frankly all that's keeping them together is probably tradition than anything else. Maya has her own problems.
This sounded like a great stew for a plot but I felt it was tough to get into. There are shifts in character points of view and while it didn't jar me as badly as with other books, I think it again lends to a loss of momentum and made it much harder overall to get into the heads of the characters. It sounded like a really great premise (also I don't think I've read any book set in Bangladesh for an extended period of time) but it didn't really work for me. It needed tighter editing and maybe a focus on just one character or at least cutting out the focuses on a couple of them or moving it to an omniscient narrator.
In some ways it reminded me of Matthew Thomas's 'We Are Not Ourselves' which tells the story of a family (over a longer period of time), but that book benefited from really only focusing on one character for most of the book with an epilogue focused on another at the end. It also mostly focused on the family, with friends popping up here and there. Here in 'Bright Lines' some characters get some focus but I think could have benefited from being cut down or out completely.
That said, it is a debut and I managed to get an ARC free from someone giving it away. I'd recommend this for a library borrow.
July 26, 2015
The author has really taken her time to craft the characters in this story. It centers on two generations of a family. The parents, immigrants to New York from Bangladesh, have survived war and the tearing apart of families and friendships, and at some level cannot sympathize with the small troubles of their children. The daughters, Ella and Charu, are searching for their identities in every way, including sexual, familial, and religious, as they are on break from college.
Toward the end of the summer that occupies the first part of the book, things fall apart rather rapidly. The daughters' best friend, Maya, poisons herself, and the father has an affair. The family is a victim of small-time homegrown terror. The father's best friend tells him that he has lost his way, and the next thing we know, we're in Bangladesh with the family.
This is an intriguing part of the modern immigrant story -- the ability to go back and visit the old home as Americans. The description of Bangladesh and the story of its history drew me in. The characters explored their stories, old and new, shared and individual.
The book has room for the characters to grow and change, to experience what Charu calls midirected love and then to back away from it. The young women do mature quite a bit, although they still bear the quick tempers of youth. Ella, in particular, finds a new identity that she had been hiding from. The ending is hopeful without being a happily-ever-after or an unmitigated tragedy. The author has clearly taken a great deal of care with crafting this narrative, and I appreciate that as a reader.
This is a beautiful story, and I heartily recommend it. It's not for the overly conservative (there is sex, there is weed), but then, very few novels are.
I got a copy of this from First to Read.
Toward the end of the summer that occupies the first part of the book, things fall apart rather rapidly. The daughters' best friend, Maya, poisons herself, and the father has an affair. The family is a victim of small-time homegrown terror. The father's best friend tells him that he has lost his way, and the next thing we know, we're in Bangladesh with the family.
This is an intriguing part of the modern immigrant story -- the ability to go back and visit the old home as Americans. The description of Bangladesh and the story of its history drew me in. The characters explored their stories, old and new, shared and individual.
The book has room for the characters to grow and change, to experience what Charu calls midirected love and then to back away from it. The young women do mature quite a bit, although they still bear the quick tempers of youth. Ella, in particular, finds a new identity that she had been hiding from. The ending is hopeful without being a happily-ever-after or an unmitigated tragedy. The author has clearly taken a great deal of care with crafting this narrative, and I appreciate that as a reader.
This is a beautiful story, and I heartily recommend it. It's not for the overly conservative (there is sex, there is weed), but then, very few novels are.
I got a copy of this from First to Read.
May 25, 2017
Originally published at https://reallifereading.com/2017/05/2...
It is not an easy thing, describing this book. A family saga? An immigrant story? A bildungsroman?
All of this and more?
However you’d like to group it under, there is no doubt that this was an ambitious book. A book filled with larger than life characters. A book full of energy and colour and spirit.
It is 2003 and Ella, home from college, sneaks into the Brooklyn house of her aunt Hashi and uncle Anwar.
Ella is the adopted daughter, technically the niece. Her parents died in Bangladesh when she was very young. She’s at a crossroads in life. As is her sister Charu (Anwar’s daughter), about to head to NYU. Charu thinks herself an entrepreneur/designer, making hijabs out of unusual cloth for sale. Ella has also had a bit of a crush on Charu for quite a while now.
Anwar owns an apothecary, selling homemade beauty products, and Hashi runs a beauty salon out of their home.
And add to this mix Charu’s friend Maya, the daughter of a strict religious cleric, who has run away from home and is staying with them. It just so happens that Maya’s father is the very man whose storefront Anwar rents.
It’s a summer of love and relationships of the ‘forbidden’ kind, ‘forbidden’ more because of the culture and religion that they grew up in. Ella has her own awakening about her sexual and personal identity that is both brave and beautiful.
A bright, effervescent book about self-discovery and belonging. The lush verdant settings of New York and Bangladesh, and the detailed lives of the characters allow the reader to know them well and definitely made me think about how their lives are like now that the book has ended. Always a sign of a good read and an excellent writer.
It is not an easy thing, describing this book. A family saga? An immigrant story? A bildungsroman?
All of this and more?
However you’d like to group it under, there is no doubt that this was an ambitious book. A book filled with larger than life characters. A book full of energy and colour and spirit.
It is 2003 and Ella, home from college, sneaks into the Brooklyn house of her aunt Hashi and uncle Anwar.
Ella is the adopted daughter, technically the niece. Her parents died in Bangladesh when she was very young. She’s at a crossroads in life. As is her sister Charu (Anwar’s daughter), about to head to NYU. Charu thinks herself an entrepreneur/designer, making hijabs out of unusual cloth for sale. Ella has also had a bit of a crush on Charu for quite a while now.
Anwar owns an apothecary, selling homemade beauty products, and Hashi runs a beauty salon out of their home.
And add to this mix Charu’s friend Maya, the daughter of a strict religious cleric, who has run away from home and is staying with them. It just so happens that Maya’s father is the very man whose storefront Anwar rents.
It’s a summer of love and relationships of the ‘forbidden’ kind, ‘forbidden’ more because of the culture and religion that they grew up in. Ella has her own awakening about her sexual and personal identity that is both brave and beautiful.
A bright, effervescent book about self-discovery and belonging. The lush verdant settings of New York and Bangladesh, and the detailed lives of the characters allow the reader to know them well and definitely made me think about how their lives are like now that the book has ended. Always a sign of a good read and an excellent writer.
March 11, 2019
This was WILD. Can't recommend enough. It's Queer, Diverse, Sex-positive, unapologetic, and really beautiful story of love, family and friendship.
TW: Rape, Death, Hallucinations, Arson, Cheating, Sex, & Drug use.
TW: Rape, Death, Hallucinations, Arson, Cheating, Sex, & Drug use.
September 20, 2024
It didn't explore identity in the way I expected, but was even better !! Took a while to get on board with the setting and characters but I reaaaally liked the imagery and ending !
August 3, 2015
This is a really engrossing immigrant family drama, parts of which feel very familiar, not that different from the experiences of my mother's family. Immigrant parents, American children, family left behind in the old country, old family issues that didn't disappear because they moved away.
The difference, of course, is that this family are Muslims from Bangladesh.
Anwar and Hashi Saleem have built a good life in Brooklyn, where they have raised their daughter Charu and their orphaned niece Ella--daughter of Hashi's brother and his wife, murdered by old enemies from the war years. Ella is in college now; Charu has just graduated high school and will start college in the fall. Anwar runs Anwar's Apothecary, selling herbal health and beauty products which he makes himself. Hashi operates a beauty salon out of a portion of their house.
All four have a summer of discovery and upheaval ahead of them.
Ella comes home from college to find Charu's friend Maya, daughter of a local Muslim cleric, asleep in her bed. Maya has run away from a home life that is increasingly not just strict, but oppressive and even emotionally abusive. Anwar and Hashi decide to let her stay.
The three girls have a summer of adventure, self-discovery, and sensual exploration. Anwar, meanwhile, struggles with his memories of Bangladesh's war for independence from Pakistan, a marriage that has perhaps grown a bit dull after thirty years, and the temptations of a beautiful tenant living on the top floor. He and Hashi both worry for the two girls they've raised and love. When all their secrets blow up for all of them, Anwar packs his family off to Bangladesh to visit their surviving family--Hashi's father and surviving brother, and her dead brother's adopted son.
More discoveries and revelations await them.
This is a novel of character exploration and growth, not a whizzbang plot. The Saleems and their friends and family are flawed, fascinating, and mostly very likable people.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher via Penguin's First to Read program
The difference, of course, is that this family are Muslims from Bangladesh.
Anwar and Hashi Saleem have built a good life in Brooklyn, where they have raised their daughter Charu and their orphaned niece Ella--daughter of Hashi's brother and his wife, murdered by old enemies from the war years. Ella is in college now; Charu has just graduated high school and will start college in the fall. Anwar runs Anwar's Apothecary, selling herbal health and beauty products which he makes himself. Hashi operates a beauty salon out of a portion of their house.
All four have a summer of discovery and upheaval ahead of them.
Ella comes home from college to find Charu's friend Maya, daughter of a local Muslim cleric, asleep in her bed. Maya has run away from a home life that is increasingly not just strict, but oppressive and even emotionally abusive. Anwar and Hashi decide to let her stay.
The three girls have a summer of adventure, self-discovery, and sensual exploration. Anwar, meanwhile, struggles with his memories of Bangladesh's war for independence from Pakistan, a marriage that has perhaps grown a bit dull after thirty years, and the temptations of a beautiful tenant living on the top floor. He and Hashi both worry for the two girls they've raised and love. When all their secrets blow up for all of them, Anwar packs his family off to Bangladesh to visit their surviving family--Hashi's father and surviving brother, and her dead brother's adopted son.
More discoveries and revelations await them.
This is a novel of character exploration and growth, not a whizzbang plot. The Saleems and their friends and family are flawed, fascinating, and mostly very likable people.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher via Penguin's First to Read program
August 13, 2015
Ella is the adopted daughter of Anwar and Hashi Saleem. The Saleem's took her in when her parents were murdered. They also have a daughter of their own named Chauru. They all live together in Brooklyn, New York, where Anwar is the owner of an apothecary(Pharmacy) and Hashi has a salon in their home. This is the only family that Ella has ever known. Although she has never really felt as a part of them, she was never treated as an outcast and never referred to as niece or cousin. The summer after her first year at college, Ella returns home to find things in a bit of disarray. There is a strange girl in her bed, her cousin/sister, Chauru, is sneaking boys into her room, her uncle is distant and her aunt, is constantly busy with customers during the wedding season. When a devastating event takes place, the family travels back to their home country of Bangladesh and they all learn important lessons about themselves and family.
This book took me through a lot of different emotions. First the story started off slowly and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. There were parts that had me confused and parts that had me shocked. Once I made it to the halfway point, it was hard to put it down.
This is a debut novel by Tanwi Nandini Islam. I love books that take me to a place I have never been. This book gave me a look into a world that I may not have ever discovered. Spanning the globe to help the Saleem's to learn to love one another and others. To learn about their history so they aren't doomed to repeat it in their future. Learning about family and loss and how to pull together when you have to. How to survive when you think it's impossible. This is a novel about discovery and family and learning to find yourself through your history.
**I received a copy of this book from the publisher, PENGUIN, through their First To Read program in exchange for my honest review.**
This book took me through a lot of different emotions. First the story started off slowly and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. There were parts that had me confused and parts that had me shocked. Once I made it to the halfway point, it was hard to put it down.
This is a debut novel by Tanwi Nandini Islam. I love books that take me to a place I have never been. This book gave me a look into a world that I may not have ever discovered. Spanning the globe to help the Saleem's to learn to love one another and others. To learn about their history so they aren't doomed to repeat it in their future. Learning about family and loss and how to pull together when you have to. How to survive when you think it's impossible. This is a novel about discovery and family and learning to find yourself through your history.
**I received a copy of this book from the publisher, PENGUIN, through their First To Read program in exchange for my honest review.**
August 8, 2015
**I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
3 stars...I didn't love this book but I can't seem to stop thinking about the characters.
It's an impressive debut novel, especially with respect to how well developed each of the characters are considering the book has less than 300 pages.
The story is told from the point of view of multiple family members over the course of a summer. Each character is affected differently by the events of the summer & each has it's very own distinct voice & point of view providing the reader with an understanding of what motivates each character as well as an understanding of the family dynamics & relationships between the characters.
The dialogue between the characters is well written. Each character speaks as though a person of their age & position would speak. The characters interact with each other as you would expect given their ages & positions.
The prose is descriptive. There may not be many lines that will move you to read them more than once but you will be able to picture the settings, both in New York & Bangladesh.
The plot is a bit heavy & depressing but the ending is hopeful.
I can't exactly pinpoint why I didn't exactly love it; however, I did enjoy the characters.
I did like the book & recommend it to others.
3 stars...I didn't love this book but I can't seem to stop thinking about the characters.
It's an impressive debut novel, especially with respect to how well developed each of the characters are considering the book has less than 300 pages.
The story is told from the point of view of multiple family members over the course of a summer. Each character is affected differently by the events of the summer & each has it's very own distinct voice & point of view providing the reader with an understanding of what motivates each character as well as an understanding of the family dynamics & relationships between the characters.
The dialogue between the characters is well written. Each character speaks as though a person of their age & position would speak. The characters interact with each other as you would expect given their ages & positions.
The prose is descriptive. There may not be many lines that will move you to read them more than once but you will be able to picture the settings, both in New York & Bangladesh.
The plot is a bit heavy & depressing but the ending is hopeful.
I can't exactly pinpoint why I didn't exactly love it; however, I did enjoy the characters.
I did like the book & recommend it to others.
December 19, 2022
wow, just wow. Why is this book not part of every Asian American reading list?!?!?!
I'm finding it hard to put into words how much I enjoyed reading every page. The characters embody a level of mystery, complexity and intrigue that felt so genuine and familial. The setting of the novel melts into the characters beings and becomes an extension of the family. Nothing felt stereotypical or tropey (as many books which attempt to address first/second gen immigrant families often do) and
the way queerness was portrayed felt like an arrow piercing my heart (but in a good way).
I'm finding it hard to put into words how much I enjoyed reading every page. The characters embody a level of mystery, complexity and intrigue that felt so genuine and familial. The setting of the novel melts into the characters beings and becomes an extension of the family. Nothing felt stereotypical or tropey (as many books which attempt to address first/second gen immigrant families often do) and
the way queerness was portrayed felt like an arrow piercing my heart (but in a good way).
February 16, 2016
It was just dull. Many things happened, and still it was dull. None of the characters felt real. None of the conflicts or relationships felt real. Only with the father, Anwar, was an attempt made and I didn't pick this book up to read about some sad old man who has an affair with his ~spicy~ neighbour.
February 17, 2016
What a beautiful book!
March 6, 2020
i wanted to like this book so much but jesus CHRIST the dialogue was comically awful how could anybody read this with a straight face
December 11, 2021
Each seed tells this story : Everything that happens is already written.
- Tanwi Nandini Islam, Bright Lines
.
.
Ella Saleem reminded me of the main character in “the half of it” netflix movie. She was this silent , introverted and kind soul that prefer her own solitary. Being a closeted lesbian muslim girl and somewhat pining for her own cousin, she was mesmerized by the oppositeness that she has with her. She is careful in eveything, Charu Saleem is daring and has ‘give no shit’ attitude. She is a booksmart and Charu is a streetsmart. She prefer her plants and garden but Charu is more on entrepreneur side and wanted to open her own clothing line. This stark contrast that she has with Charu is often the reason why their parents prefer her more than Charu. She was constantly being asked to look over Charu and to make sure Charu did not do stupid things. Being adopted into Charu’s family at the young age after her parents got murdered, she never felt right to call Charu’s Parents, Hashi and Anwar as Mom and Dad, so she kept referring them as aunty and uncle. She never like any other girl besides Charu until Charu brought home Maya, her friend who ran away from home. Ella fell in love with Maya and wanted to be with her. Then we shifted the POV to Anwar, Ella and Charu father whom from the beginning has been insinuated that deep down he carried a lot of emotional baggages. He cannot get over his best friend’s death, Rezwan whom also Hashi’s brother. He try to connect with Ella by telling her about his father but sometimes it is hard to do it without the guilt washed over him. Hashi, on the other hands, knew that Ella is a reliable girl so she rarely focus on her but she was so strict with Charu making her felt suffocated and cant wait to be free and independent once she turned 18. Hashi is the only one in the family that kept her prayers in check and deep down she wanted both Charu and Ella followed her as she knew that Anwar is a lost cause in practicing their faith. Hashi’s marriage in shamble when she discovered that Anwar cheated on her with their tenant. She told Anwar that she wanted to leave USA and go back to bangladesh. She felt that this is the right way as the girls are growing up and will
not need her anymore. This book was divided into 3 parts, the part 1 which America as the backdrop, the part 2 which Bangladesh as the backdrop and Epilogue to conclude the story. Will Ella and Charu find their root in Bangladesh? Will they discovered their attachment to the land that once belonged to their parents? Will Anwar reconciled with the ghost of his past? Will hashi stay in her marriage or decided to just end it in Bangladesh? Overall, this is a great book - it is a coming of age story that centred on generational differences. It is also offered a breath of fresh air because this is the first time i have read about botany aspect in fiction novel and i love every bit of it - the flowers, the seeds, the scents and the intricate process of it. However, i am sure that this book is not everyone. I think the story is highly sexualized and almost borderline incestuous.
- Tanwi Nandini Islam, Bright Lines
.
.
Ella Saleem reminded me of the main character in “the half of it” netflix movie. She was this silent , introverted and kind soul that prefer her own solitary. Being a closeted lesbian muslim girl and somewhat pining for her own cousin, she was mesmerized by the oppositeness that she has with her. She is careful in eveything, Charu Saleem is daring and has ‘give no shit’ attitude. She is a booksmart and Charu is a streetsmart. She prefer her plants and garden but Charu is more on entrepreneur side and wanted to open her own clothing line. This stark contrast that she has with Charu is often the reason why their parents prefer her more than Charu. She was constantly being asked to look over Charu and to make sure Charu did not do stupid things. Being adopted into Charu’s family at the young age after her parents got murdered, she never felt right to call Charu’s Parents, Hashi and Anwar as Mom and Dad, so she kept referring them as aunty and uncle. She never like any other girl besides Charu until Charu brought home Maya, her friend who ran away from home. Ella fell in love with Maya and wanted to be with her. Then we shifted the POV to Anwar, Ella and Charu father whom from the beginning has been insinuated that deep down he carried a lot of emotional baggages. He cannot get over his best friend’s death, Rezwan whom also Hashi’s brother. He try to connect with Ella by telling her about his father but sometimes it is hard to do it without the guilt washed over him. Hashi, on the other hands, knew that Ella is a reliable girl so she rarely focus on her but she was so strict with Charu making her felt suffocated and cant wait to be free and independent once she turned 18. Hashi is the only one in the family that kept her prayers in check and deep down she wanted both Charu and Ella followed her as she knew that Anwar is a lost cause in practicing their faith. Hashi’s marriage in shamble when she discovered that Anwar cheated on her with their tenant. She told Anwar that she wanted to leave USA and go back to bangladesh. She felt that this is the right way as the girls are growing up and will
not need her anymore. This book was divided into 3 parts, the part 1 which America as the backdrop, the part 2 which Bangladesh as the backdrop and Epilogue to conclude the story. Will Ella and Charu find their root in Bangladesh? Will they discovered their attachment to the land that once belonged to their parents? Will Anwar reconciled with the ghost of his past? Will hashi stay in her marriage or decided to just end it in Bangladesh? Overall, this is a great book - it is a coming of age story that centred on generational differences. It is also offered a breath of fresh air because this is the first time i have read about botany aspect in fiction novel and i love every bit of it - the flowers, the seeds, the scents and the intricate process of it. However, i am sure that this book is not everyone. I think the story is highly sexualized and almost borderline incestuous.
February 25, 2018
Felt on the skin
As beautiful as it is sensual and hallucinatory, this debut novel is a must read for anyone who has ever loved a city and the people who make it up.
As beautiful as it is sensual and hallucinatory, this debut novel is a must read for anyone who has ever loved a city and the people who make it up.
January 5, 2016
Bright Lines is more of a sprawling family novel than what I usually read, and I think that fact hindered my enjoyment of it in some places: I wanted it to be more tightly focused on a single character than it is. Instead, we get bits and pieces focused on the various inhabitants of a Clinton Hill brownstone: Anwar and Hashi Saleem, who moved to the US after the Bangladesh Liberation War, plus their daughter Charu, who's 18 and about to start college, plus their niece Ella, who's now a college sophomore but who moved to Brooklyn with them as a child after her parents' murder (and who starts going by El over the course of the book, as he realizes he identifies as male), plus Maya, one of Charu's friends who has run away from her overbearing father (who's an Islamic cleric and doesn't want her to go to college), plus Ramona Espinal, a nurse who lives in the top-floor apartment that Anwar rents out.
The first section of the book is all Brooklyn summertime, Atlantic Avenue in June, the garden of the Saleems' brownstone at night, Ella and Charu and Maya riding their bikes to Jacob Riis Park to go to the beach, or going to a Bushwick warehouse party together. (It's also Hashi in her salon and Anwar in his shop and Anwar smoking pot with his friends after hours, but I wanted more of the kids.) In the second part of the book, the action jumps forward a few months and moves to Bangladesh, where Anwar and Hashi and Charu and El are visiting Hashi's remaining family (her father and much-younger brother), after which we get an epilogue in Brooklyn focusing on El and Maya and Charu, which is probably my favorite part of the book, maybe because really I would have liked a whole book just about El and Maya. That said, I couldn't help admiring the way the different strands of all the book's stories (the different characters, and Brooklyn and Bangladesh, and past and present) were woven together.
The first section of the book is all Brooklyn summertime, Atlantic Avenue in June, the garden of the Saleems' brownstone at night, Ella and Charu and Maya riding their bikes to Jacob Riis Park to go to the beach, or going to a Bushwick warehouse party together. (It's also Hashi in her salon and Anwar in his shop and Anwar smoking pot with his friends after hours, but I wanted more of the kids.) In the second part of the book, the action jumps forward a few months and moves to Bangladesh, where Anwar and Hashi and Charu and El are visiting Hashi's remaining family (her father and much-younger brother), after which we get an epilogue in Brooklyn focusing on El and Maya and Charu, which is probably my favorite part of the book, maybe because really I would have liked a whole book just about El and Maya. That said, I couldn't help admiring the way the different strands of all the book's stories (the different characters, and Brooklyn and Bangladesh, and past and present) were woven together.
September 11, 2017
This was an incredibly well developed novel with a scope spanning decades and continents. It sets itself up as a coming of age novel of Brooklyn, while also reckoning with issues of civil war and ethnic cleansing, familial and generational traumas, mental illness, abuse, lesbianism, and immigrant narratives in America. This is one of the first contemporary books set in Brooklyn that I have read that gives me such a firm sense of place and also where the book describes a borough I recognize, populated with fully fleshed out humanized characters from a variety of backgrounds and a a wide range of occupations and motives. The blossoming romance between two girl characters and the issues of inheritance/acceptance by father figures for the teenage girl protagonists is beautifully handled. The YA-style exploration of parties, sex and arguments with authority figures merged in a really unique and fascinating way with the political and international thematic riffs that would more typically be found in adult fiction-- the flashbacks to war and violence by one of the father characters reminds the reader of how enormous the universe of the story is and how interpersonal issues connect to far vaster problems. I think this is a great book for Brooklyn teens and American teens of all backgrounds to read. Adults too.
March 24, 2017
L O V E D. took a while to get into and then i wanted to live in it - slow blooming. phantasmagorical and real all at once. cried some real tears. one of the few books that really made South Asian history and syncretism and Partition and the Bangladeshi Liberation War and the violence that haunts and haunts come alive for me. everything is maya. appreciated bi-gender (/non-conforming) Rashaud Persaud as a queer Guyanese-American. the fully realized richness and multiplicity of Anwar's character made me want to peer beneath the surface of my own uncles. loved Charu and Ella and the inevitable growing apart/immense-loving-and-then-not-understanding-each-other-at-all of sisterhood (siblinghood). Ella El E. the relatable extreme-discomfort-in-one's-own-skin didi/bhaiyya i've been looking for. also, orgasms as liberatory and finally centering in your own body - yes.
i want a tv series of this.
i want a tv series of this.
August 22, 2016
This book was incredible. Beautiful, organic, lyrical, totally absorbing. Populated with real characters who don't usually make the pages of books: people of colour, immigrants, locals, neighbours, LGTBQ characters; but all rendered realistically and fully. Islam gets you inside each characters motivations and perspectives seamlessly, even though they're so different from each other. I can't wait for the discussion at the Gracie Book Club with Chirlane McCray and James Hannaham tomorrow.
October 10, 2016
I liked this book but didn't love it. Parts of it engrossed me and other parts just left me feeling "meh." I liked the characters but some of them seemed underdeveloped (mainly Maya although Charu's motivations weren't very clear either).
August 16, 2015
Fucking amazing.
March 29, 2021
Good, but needed more
This book was mixed for me. It was quick and interesting, as there is a lot of dialogue and things happened quickly. I liked both the Brooklyn and Bangladesh cultural aspect. But I felt like this could have been three books that dove deeper into the stories - the family’s life in Brooklyn as one book, the family’s life in Bangladesh, and maybe a full prequel based on Anwar’s letter. I think it was too much story for one novel, some things could have been fleshed out more.
This book was mixed for me. It was quick and interesting, as there is a lot of dialogue and things happened quickly. I liked both the Brooklyn and Bangladesh cultural aspect. But I felt like this could have been three books that dove deeper into the stories - the family’s life in Brooklyn as one book, the family’s life in Bangladesh, and maybe a full prequel based on Anwar’s letter. I think it was too much story for one novel, some things could have been fleshed out more.
March 29, 2017
This book is impossible to rate.
It's a great book. Like a masterfully written book. And it explores and depicts everything from gender to sexuality to war to death to religion to trauma to ethnicity to family in such a whole and honest way.
The settings were so alive too. I could feel Bangladesh as much as Brooklyn and vice versa.
Really excellent.
Give it a read.
It's a great book. Like a masterfully written book. And it explores and depicts everything from gender to sexuality to war to death to religion to trauma to ethnicity to family in such a whole and honest way.
The settings were so alive too. I could feel Bangladesh as much as Brooklyn and vice versa.
Really excellent.
Give it a read.
February 12, 2025
I honestly did not expect any of what happened in the second half of the novel, but I must say it was a happy surprise. I like how Tanwi built this world of secrets and slowly exposed truth and at the end, we still don't have every answer to every question, but it's nice because we have an open door and a winding path we can see for the characters. My personal favorite moment was when Rana was showing El the city and El realized what he could be. Who he could be. The symbolism later of his scar being where he takes his T injections is also quite moving. This was overall an amazing book, 10/10 (though the only moment I ever liked Anwar was right before he died and the only time I liked Charu was when she- Actually never. I didn't like her.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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