A Place for Us - Fatima Farheen Mirza

A Place for Us

By Fatima Farheen Mirza

  • Release Date: 2018-06-12
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 570 Ratings

Description

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD “5 UNDER 35” NOMINEENEW YORK’S “ONE BOOK, ONE NEW YORK” PICK

Named One of the Best Books of the Year: Washington Post • NPR • PeopleRefinery29 • Parade • BuzzFeed

“Mirza writes with a mercy that encompasses all things.”Ron Charles, Washington Post
 
Hailed as “a book for our times” (Christiane Amanpour), A Place for Us is a deeply moving and resonant story of love, identity, and belonging.

As an Indian wedding gathers a family back together, parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children have made. There is Hadia: their headstrong, eldest daughter, whose marriage is a match of love and not tradition. Huda, the middle child, determined to follow in her sister’s footsteps. And lastly, their estranged son, Amar, who returns to the family fold for the first time in three years to take his place as brother of the bride. What secrets and betrayals have caused this close-knit family to fracture? Can Amar find his way back to the people who know and love him best?

A Place for Us takes us back to the beginning of this family’s life: from the bonds that bring them together, to the differences that pull them apart. All the joy and struggle of family life is here, from Rafiq and Layla’s own arrival in America from India, to the years in which their children—each in their own way—tread between two cultures, seeking to find their place in the world, as well as a path home.

A Place for Us is a book for our times: an astonishingly tender-hearted novel of identity and belonging, and a resonant portrait of what it means to be an American family today. It announces Fatima Farheen Mirza as a major new literary talent.

Reviews

  • Beautiful book most I've cried

    5
    By Mherbandezk
    Couldn't put it down! It's Wednesday morning and I should be getting ready for work but I've decided to finish the book. I'm now sobbing in my cup of coffee and wished there was no end. It's an amazing body of work.
  • Must Read

    5
    By ait_92
    This book is a must read for all Muslim American families. The weight of feeling put into these pages is inspiring. Thank you so this book Ms Mirza!
  • Can’t escape liberal media in a book of fiction

    4
    By IIRick
    It’s basically a multigenerational muslim family story told in the format of This Is Us tv series. The best part of the book are the characters and their relationships with each other. I can see 9/11 being an important event in the story of this family. The other date, 2016, seems planted. Is it there to please Hollywood? Nothing happened of significance to the family. It dates the book. In 5 years a junior in high school will read this book cause it’s on a summer reading list for school and have no idea what the writer is talking about. Just a way to irritate 60 plus million potential readers. The rest of the book is fine. I enjoyed peeking into an American family experience. Particularly the wedding customs.
  • Lovely story of faith and family

    5
    By Ldrpmc
    This book really tugged at my heart. It showed the beauty of faith and how it can be misinterpreted and yet mercy allows you to come around and get it right. The author did a wonderful job of describing the characters and making you understand where they were coming from. I loved her style of present to past. It has been a week since I finished and I still think about the family in this book, their faith, and sayings like “give someone 70 excuses before you judge them”. This book and its message will be in my heart for years to come.
  • Flawlessly written and executed!

    5
    By kaykaybean13
    Beautiful story about a family and their cultural differences in another country. Loved it!!
  • A beautiful story with captivating writing

    5
    By Shirlsan
    I read this book for a book club- which means that even if I’m not hooked from the very first paragraph or chapter, I need to finish reading it. This was not the case for this novel. It’s not so much that I couldn’t put it down, as much as I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss a single word, message or story within it. And the author did an amazing job with clarification and emphasis to flesh out intentions. I love this book, I love this story.
  • Fabulous Read from a New Voice

    5
    By Marzipan24
    Fatima Farheem Mirza produces wonderful imagery and nuances of those particular everyday moments in our lives that have a way of defining our futures. Her use of language and character study is captivating. She has offered us a fabulous inside study of a current Muslim family living and growing in California. Shes offered so many aspects about the inner workings of an everyday family and their lives, beliefs, and customs that shape them in a compelling story that unfolds from various points of view of the family members. She opens the window to life within a family and community, belonging and fitting in, the roles we play within our families. Mirza has a beautiful way with images and language capturing those everyday moments that mark our lives and those we love. A great read from a young writer I look forward to reading for years to come.
  • A place for us

    5
    By T Laurent
    Simply Amazing. Beautiful and heartbreaking .... a story that stays with you.
  • Life

    4
    By Lady Sparhawk
    This is a powerful book about a family of five. It is skillfully and lovingly crafted so that we come to understand each character’s view of their own individual and their shared lives. We learn of their mistakes, misunderstandings, and love for one another. This is about a Muslim family facing a modern world but it could be about any family with strict cultural and religious influences. In fact, the roles of father and son should be examined by any parent struggling to relate to a powerful child. My only criticism is that some of it could have been a bit shorter.
  • Touching

    5
    By Piggle2303
    I wish I could describe my children in this way.