Tournament of Books discussion

Bright Lines by Tanwi Nandini Islam

About the Book: (from Alexander Chee’s endorsement for summer reading)
Bright Lines is set in Brooklyn during the summer of 2003, the summer of the Blackout, and Ella is a young Bangladeshi woman growing up there, beginning the process of coming out to herself and to her adoptive uncle's family as queer, while also being crushed out on her cousin Charu, whom she lives with. By the time we get to Charu's friend Maya, we are in deep. This is a novel that let me travel a little more fully into this city that I love, even as it reminded me of so much of why I love it in summer.

About the Author: (bio source: http://www.tanwinandini.com/ )
Tanwi Nandini Islam is the author of BRIGHT LINES (Penguin 2015), a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She is the founder of Hi Wildflower Botanica, a small-batch niche perfume, candle and skincare line. Her writing has appeared in Elle.com, Fashionista.com, Open City, Women 2.0, Billboard.com and Gawker. A graduate of Brooklyn College MFA and Vassar College, she lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Webpage: www.tanwinandini.com (her twitter link does not appear to be working)
Available in paperback
If you would like to chat about this book, or this author, here's a place to do so!

Happy reading!!

Thanks for the info, Amy. I'm about two-thirds of the way into this and am finding it a fun, easy read...a Brooklyn novel, only with a complex family of Bangladeshi Muslim characters. Anyone else reading this one?

Jan wrote: "Thanks for the info, Amy. I'm about two-thirds of the way into this and am finding it a fun, easy read...a Brooklyn novel, only with a complex family of Bangladeshi Muslim characters. Anyone else r..."

reading this now and very much enjoying as well... I don't really know where the plot is going to go which is rather refreshing.

I really enjoyed this book. I felt like it reflected a great view into a microcosm of American life I likely never would have been exposed to otherwise. I loved the immigration story, the way that cultures intermingled and the treatment of race, gender, beauty, family, identity and home.

I'm 1/4 way into this and it's so light and fun and new and I have complicated feelings about the big cast of characters - I had to pop in to this thread to see if it was full of people who say it failed to deliver so I could brace myself for disappointment.

Fortunately it seems I'm safe to go back and enjoy (and wish my summer was cool enough to bike places, but I can do that for the other 9 months of the year.)

I just finished this and I was thinking that it was typical YA with two-dimensional characters when I was about 1/4 through it. But she broke out of that and fleshed out this family and its challenges in a measured and skilled way. I was sure I was going to give it 3-stars until the last few chapters really changed my opinion to 4.

I am way behind the power curve on this one. I'm about 1/3 of the way in and enjoying it so far.

I had very mixed feelings about this book. Some of it I really liked and some of it not so much. Much of it felt unfocused and some of the characters were underdeveloped. Great first effort, though!

Hello, my name is Saudamini and I'm an independent journalist and M.A. student at Columbia Journalism School. I'm working on a profile of Tanwi Nandini Islam, and I'm deeply interested in talking to readers of Bright Lines. Please email me – sj2789@columbia.edu – if you could spare a few minutes to chat some time over the next few days? Thanks! S