A Place for Us

by Fatima Farheen Mirza

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NEW YORK’S “ONE BOOK, ONE NEW YORK” PICK

Named One of the Best Books of 2018 by: Washington Post • NPR • People • Refinery29 • Parade • Buzzfeed

"Mirza writes with a mercy that encompasses all things." — RON CHARLES, Washington Post

"A Place for Us is a book for our times." — CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR

The first novel from Sarah Jessica Parker’s new imprint, SJP for Hogarth, 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.

• ISBN10: 1432852590
• ISBN13: 9781432852597
• Publish Date: 3 July 2018 (first published 12 June 2018)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 22 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Thorndike Press Large Print
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Language: English

Reviews

This is a beautifully written, character driven story about a Muslim Indian-American family dealing with personal struggles and family tensions.

Acceptance, rejection, heartache, forgiveness, and love are just a few things explored in this story. Although their family challenges are not exactly unique, the author does a fantastic job portraying the rawness behind it.

The pace is pretty slow though and longer than it needed to be. It started to drag about halfway through the book before grabbing my interest again.

I believe the story itself warrants 4 stars but the pacing and length overall drops it down to a 3 star average.

I listened to this book and although the narrator was excellent, it jumps around a lot with flashbacks and events that I found it difficult to get into. I actually stopped midway because it hadn't grabbed me and I decided I just wasn't in the mood right now. I read two other books and then came back to this book. I'm glad I did finish it. I loved the last part of the book, it's a beautiful, tug at your heart book. Some books you just have to pause and start up again when you are in the right mood and that's what this book was like for me.