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'A Place For Us': A novel

Fatima Farheen Mirza in March 2019.

'A Place For Us' is a novel written by Fatima Farheen Mirza, published in June 2018. It is the first book published by Sarah Jessica Parker's new imprint, SJP for Hogarth. The novel focuses on an Indian-Muslim family living in Northern California, striving to find a balance between tradition and modernity. (discuss why SJP chose this as her first book for imprint) ((Atm can't find much on why))

(need to fix lead)

Reception:

• A Place for Us instantly made it's way onto the New York Times Best Selling List for books.
• The book was featured as one of the best books of 2018 by NPR , Refinery 29, and the Washington Post .
• Entertainment Weekly reviewed the novel and stated: "...a rich and layered tale about family and assimilation"
• Micheal Schaub for NPR wrote: "...a stunning novel about love, compassion, cruelty, and forgiveness-the very things that make families what they are" .
• Anthony Marra, the author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena wrote: " A Place for Us is radiantly envisioned, beautifully achieved epic about nearly everything that matters: love, family, faith, freedom, betrayal, contrition, absolution. Fatima Farheen Mirza is a magnificent new voice."

Characters:

Major

Hadia: Hadia is one of the four main characters/ narrators. She is the eldest sibling and there is a strong focus on her throughout the entirety of the novel. As the oldest girl Hadia struggles with how strict her parents are, which is what causes her to feel jealousy towards Amar due to the leniency their parents give him. Hadia sees her major accomplishes being outshone by minor accomplishes from Amar. Hadia is shown to be a strong intelligent woman who excels in school and gets accepted into medical school soon after graduating. Later in the novel Hadia is treated with more respect, she is given her father's watch which had been passed down to generations of sons. When Hadia's life is shown to be the best it has ever been in medical school, her parents call her back home with the news that Amar has fallen into depression and substance and drug abuse.

Amar: Amar is one of the main characters, who is a strong focus throughout the book. Amar is the youngest sibling and only boy in the family. Growing up a young Amar and Hadia were very close, often confiding in each other about various life problems at that age, as they grew older it became more apparent that they were seen as polar opposites and of Hadia's jealously towards him. Throughout the book Amar struggles to define who he is, and the emotional turmoil he faced as a child causes him to perform poorly in school. Amar views his sisters Hadia and Huda as a high-achieving and obedient, thus to try and keep up Amar acts out by cheating on his spelling tests, and faking being sick to get out of class exams. Amar is taken under Abbas' wing, and is deeply affected by his death. He falls for and becomes involved with Abbas' sister Amira, however they are forced to break up when Amira's mother finds out. Amar struggles with the emotional turmoil he's faced and later falls into depression and substance and drug abuse. After getting into a fight with his father, Amar leaves home to return years later for Hadia's wedding. He showed up feeling on edge seeing everyone from his past life. When he runs into his former-love Amira, he finds out that his mom was the one to out their relationship, forcing the two of them to breakup. At the end of the wedding, Amar finds comfort at the nearest bar, and later runs into his father outside the wedding venue.

Rafiq: Rafiq is the father of Hadia, Huda and Amar. The novel gives us glimpses of his life when he and his newlywed wife migrated to America. Rafiq is seen as a cold, strict father. He is often quite hard on his children, especially Amar.

The last chapter of the book is from Rafiq's point of view, and it is revealed that he has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He gets hospitalised at the same hospital where Haida is working. After his successful surgery, he returns home to spend as much time as he can with Hadia's children, and subsequently ends up reflecting heavily on his relationship with Amar. Once he realises that his grandson often gets secret calls from Amar, he asks him to pass along the message that he believed that there is another chance for their relationship, and that even with it's not in this life, that he will always wait for him in the next.

Layla: Layla is the mother of Hadia, Huda and Amar, and the wife of Rafiq. She is another one of the four main characters/narrators. Layla is seen as the soft-hearted mother, and is shown to have a special connection with her son, Amar.

Minor

Huda: Huda is the middle sibling, and is often on the outside of the drama going around. The audience is only given certain glimpses of Huda's life, causing her to be seen as a side character to her siblings' incidents.

Abbas: Abbas is one of the Muslim boys in their community. Hadia forms a crush on him, who later takes Amar under his wing. Abba's sudden death from a car accident heavily affected both Hadia and Amar.

Amira: Amira is the younger sister of Abbas, and was the romantic interest of Amar. After Abbas' deather, Amira and Amar began their secret relationship. They both are aware that her family would never approve of her dating Amar, due to them being a family of more importance within the community, and Amar being a poor student. Layla seeks out Amira's mother in hopes to force the young kids to break up.

Themes:

Islamaphobia:

Drug use:

Reflection:

Category:literature category:novels Category:books