Monica Ali

A Novel

Brick Lane

Set in London, a fresh and wickedly incisive novel about the daughter of Indian immigrants navigating love, family, and culture—by the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestselling Brick Lane, shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Yasmin Ghorami is twenty-six, in training to be a doctor (like her Indian-born father), and engaged to the charismatic, upper-class Joe Sangster, whose domineering mother, Harriet, is a famous feminist. Though both Yasmin’s parents and Joe’s mother approve of the marriage, the cultural gulf between Yasmin and Joe is vast. The novel opens as Yasmin and her family pile into their car, packed with Indian food prepared by Yasmin’s mother, to go to dinner to meet Joe’s mother in her elegant townhouse in one of London’s poshest neighborhoods. Contrary to all of Yasmin’s fears, her unsophisticated mother is embraced and celebrated by Harriet and her friends. But before long, complications ensue when Yasmin discovers Joe’s promiscuous nature, her brother is banished from the house by her father, and Yasmin’s mother moves to Harriet’s house in protest. ​ Bold, intimate, and entertaining, Love Marriage is a multi-layered story that explores how the secrets people keep hidden affect their most intimate relationships—and how sometimes, it takes extreme upheaval, to find ourselves and our lives, truly transformed.

Love Marriage

A collection of short stories set in the Alentejo province of Portugal features characters linked by a vivid sense of place and time, including Teresa, who yearns to see the world, and Vasco, a cafe owner who is losing business to a new Internet cafe.

Fiction

Alentejo Blue

Imagines what the fate of Princess Diana might have been had she not died in Paris in 1997, in a story about the cost of fame and the possibility of reinventing a life.

Untold Story

رواية

بريك لين

L'histoire drôle et poignante d'une Bangladaise émigrée à Londres. Un roman généreux, foisonnant et épicé sur le choc des cultures, les désenchantements de l'exil et les mirages de l'intégration. Une formidable galerie de personnages. Une écriture étincelante. Un pur joyau. En 1967, dans un village de l'est du Pakistan, une femme croit donner le jour à une enfant mort-née. Mais Nazneen survit et devient " celle qui a été livrée à son Destin ". Un destin qui l'attend à Londres, auprès de l'époux choisi par son père : Chanu, la quarantaine bedonnante, ennuyeuse et pontifiante, des rêves en pagaille, sans les moyens de ses ambitions. Isolée dans ce pays dont elle ne parle pas la langue, Nazneen n'a d'autre choix que se soumettre. Dans la cité de Brick Lane où règnent racisme ordinaire, fondamentalisme rampant et trafics en tous genres, elle découvrira pourtant la solidarité, la débrouillardise et l'amitié. Tiraillée entre traditions ancestrales et espoirs insensés, Nazneen va peu à peu prendre le contrôle de sa vie, jusqu'à franchir le pire des interdits... Et comprendre que s'octroyer le droit au bonheur a un prix.

Sept mers et treize rivières

Alentejo Blue is the story of the Portuguese village of Mamarrosa told through the lives of those who live there and those who are passing through - men and women, children and old people, locals, tourists and expatriates. For some, such as Teresa, a beautiful, dreamy village girl, it is a place from which to escape; for others - the dysfunctional Potts family - it is a way of running from trouble (but not eluding it). Vasco, a café owner who has never recovered from the death of his American wife, clings to a notion that his years in America make him superior to the other villagers. One English tourist makes Mamarrosa the subject of her fantasy of a new life, while for her compatriots, a young engaged couple, Mamarrosa is where their dreams finally fall apart. At the book's opening an old man reflects on his long and troubled life in this beautiful and seemingly tranquil setting, and anticipates the return of Marco Afonso Rodrigues, the prodigal son of the village and a symbol of this now fast-changing world. The homecoming is the subject of continuing speculation, and when Marco Afonso Rodrigues does finally appear, villagers, tourists and expatriates are brought together and jealousies, passions and disappointments must inevitably collide.

Alentejo Blue. Monica Ali

Viața și căsnicia Dianei au fost, în același timp, o poveste și un coșmar. Adorată de milioane de oameni, a avut de îndurat totodată respingerea, durerea sufletească și trădarea în viața personală. înconjurată de strălucire și de atenția constantă a presei, a luptat mereu să-și găsească propriul drum, iar fascinația pe care continuă să o exercite chiar și după mai mult de un deceniu de la moarte este încă o dovadă a unei personalități extraordinare. Dacă ar mai fi trăit, și-ar fi găsit până la urmă pacea și fericirea sau blestemul celebrității ar fi apăsat mereu asupra ei? Într-un roman tulburător, scriitoarea Monica Aii a imaginat pentru Lady Di o altă soartă. După înscenarea propriei morți, Diana duce o existență liniștită într-un mic orășel din America – până când trecutul amenință să îi distrugă noua viață. Diana. Povestea nespusă analizează prețul celebrității, importanța identității și posibilitatea – sau imposibilitatea – reinventării unei vieți.

Prințesa Diana. Povestea nespusă

Struggling to maintain his culinary integrity in a hotel restaurant, executive chef Gabriel Lightfoot finds his secret ambition to become the hotel's owner compromised by the murder of a porter and pressure from his girlfriend and investors.

In the Kitchen

Nazneen terlahir tak bernapas.Tetapi Takdir berkata lain, maka hiduplah dia. Pada usia delapan belas, Nazneen dinikahkan dengan Chanu, yang berusia hampir empat puluh. Nazneen kembali pasrah menerima Takdir. Dia diboyong ke London, menukar kehidupan desanya di Bangladesh dengan sekotak apartemen di East End. Di rumah baru ini Nazneen senantiasa menunaikan kewajibannya terhadap suaminya, dan kemudian anak-anaknya. Nazneen tak pernah protes, tak pernah mengeluh, tak pernah bertanya. Dia berjuang untuk tak memedulikan eksistensi dirinya yang perlahan mulai berontak ingin diakui. Sampai suatu saat, datanglah si pemuda radikal, Karim. Dia muda, lantang, kuat, berbeda dengan Chanu. Nazneen tak mampu menolak pesonanya. Maka dimulailah pergolakan batin Nazneen. Segala yang diterimanya mentah-mentah selama ini, sekarang dipertanyakannya. Segala yang dipercayainya, sekarang dia ragukan. Tetapi dia tak bisa terus lari dan menghindar dari kenyataan. Untuk pertama kali dalam hidupnya, Nazneen sadar bahwa sesungguhnya Takdir membebaskan siapa pun memilih. [Mizan, Hikmah, Novel, Inspirasi, Indonesia]

Kepingan Cinta Nazneen

With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction. Brick Lane, a Level 6 Reader, is B1+ in the CEFR framework. The longer text is made up of sentences with up to four clauses, introducing future continuous, reported questions, third conditional, was going to and ellipsis. A small number of illustrations support the text. When Nazneen is 18, she marries a much older man and moves from Bangladesh to England to be with her husband. But Brick Lane in London is very different from Nazneen's village, and she speaks no English. Nazneen must try to look after her family and get used to a new, and very strange, country.

Penguin Readers Level 6: Brick Lane (ELT Graded Reader)

Sette mari tredici fiumi

Sette mari e tredici fiumi

Eine Kleinstadt irgendwo in den USA: Lydia hofft hier, nach einem Leben, das nicht ihr, sondern der Öffentlichkeit gehörte, Anonymität, Ruhe und Freiheit zu finden. Keiner ahnt etwas von ihrer Vergangenheit als meistfotografierte Frau der Welt. Einzig ihr Liebhaber spürt, dass Lydia vieles vor ihm verbirgt. Als ein britischer Fotograf in der Kleinstadt auftaucht, sieht Lydia ihre neue Identität in Gefahr, denn er weiß alles über ihr altes Leben – und setzt alles daran, dies öffentlich zu machen. Wozu ist Lydia bereit, um sich zu schützen?

Roman

Die gläserne Frau

Hvad hvis Prinsesse Diana ikke var død i 1997? Hvad hvis tragedien i den parisiske Alma-tunnel ikke havde fundet sted? Hvor ville hun være, og hvad ville hun lave? Monica Ali giver sit bud på, hvordan verdens mest berømte kvindes liv havde set ud. Lydia er en kvinde i slutningen af 40’erne, som bor i den lille by Kensington i USA. Hun lever et stille og begivenhedsløst aleneliv og arbejder på et dyreinternat for herreløse hunde. Hun har en kæreste og især tre rigtig gode veninder, men ingen af disse får lov til at komme tæt på hende. Hun bærer nemlig på en hemmelighed: Hun er prinsesse Diana, og hun har iscenesat sin egen død og gennemført transformationen til mrs Nobody, som det er lykkedes hende at være i 10-12 år. Valget var svært, men da presset fra kongefamilien, pressen, mandens elskerinde og hendes egen psykiske ustabilitet blev for stort, valgte Lydia at forsvinde og tage en ny identitet ved en fingeret drukneulykkke i Sydamerika. Hun fik hjælp af privatsekretæren Lawrence, hvis version af historien fortælles i 1998. I brevform får vi detaljerne om, hvorledes Diana/Lydia blev bragt i sikkerhed i Brasilien, gennemgik omfattende kosmetiske operationer og ændring af alt det, der kunne afsløre hende: fx stemme, kropsholdning og øjenfarve. Så får Kensington besøg af en kendt fotograf: John Grabowski har fulgt det engelske kongehus gennem en årrække og har leveret utallige gode skud til pressen. Hans foretrukne motiv indtil 1997 var prinsessen, hvis kropsholdning, ansigtsudtryk og øjne han kan udenad. Og ja, så sker det, der ikke må ske: Lydia er ikke længere i sikkerhed.

Lydia

Bernardine Evaristo

Abdulrazak Gurnah

Ian Sansom

David Constantine

David Herd

Patrick Gale

Lisa Appignanesi

Jonathan Skinner

Gillian Slovo

Lytton Smith

Emma Parsons

Roma Tearne

Jonathan Wittenberg

With nationalism and the far right on the rise across Europe and North America, there has never been a more important moment to face up to what we, in Britain, are doing to those who seek sanctuary. Still the UK detains people indefinitely under immigration rules. Bail hearings go unrecorded, people are picked up without notice, individuals feel abandoned in detention centres with no way of knowing when they will be released. In Refugee Tales III we read the stories of people who have been through this process, many of whom have yet to see their cases resolved and who live in fear that at any moment they might be detained again. Poets, novelists and writers have once again collaborated with people who have experienced detention, their tales appearing alongside first-hand accounts by people who themselves have been detained. What we hear in these stories are the realities of the hostile environment, the human costs of a system that disregards rights, that denies freedoms and suspends lives. ‘We hear so many of the wrong words about refugees – ugly, limiting, unimaginative words – that it feels like a gift to find here so many of the right words which allow us to better understand the lives around us, and our own lives too.’ – Kamila Shamsie All profits go to the Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group and Kent Help for Refugees.

Monica Ali

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