(Published by Black Swan)
 |
There was plenty of hype about Monica Ali’s debut novel ever before it got published. Ali was nominated amongst the Granta Best of Young British Novelists last year and was shortlisted (as favourite) for the 2003 Booker Prize.
After reading Brick Lane, it’s a surprise that she was nominated at all, never mind tipped to win. It’s not a bad book, but nor is it an award-winning one. It’s so difficult to have any kind of sympathy for Ali’s characters – the downtrodden Nazneen, her all-talk-no-action husband Chanu and Nazneen’s rule-breaking sister Hasina – that readers may find it difficult to struggle through the 490 pages.
Brick Lane is about Nazneen, a Bangladeshi, who, aged just 18, is married off to Chanu, a man 20 years her senior. She leaves her small village and family for the East End of London and the book revolves around her life there and her silent struggles against the hand that fate has dealt her.
As a debut novel, Brick Lane has a lot to recommend it – but not enough to justify the hype. 
