A Place for Us

A Place for Us catches an Indian Muslim family on the eve of the eldest daughter's wedding. As Hadia's marriage -- one chosen of love, not tradition -- gathers the family back together, her parents Rafiq and Layla must come to terms with the choices that their two daughters, and their estranged son Amar, have made. Weaving through time, we see the detail of family life, all the crucial and tiny moments, through the eyes of each family member. And as Hadia, Huda and Amar attempt to carve out a life for themselves, they must reconcile their present culture with their parent's faith, tread a path between the old world and the new and learn how the smallest decisions can lead to the deepest betrayals. This is the story of one family, but all family life is here. It is a novel for our times: a deeply moving examination of love, identity and belonging. It announces Fatima Farheen Mirza as a major new literary talent. 'To be taken hostage by Fatima Mirza's heartrending and timely story is a gutting pleasure. It allows her reader to better understand what it means to reconcile one's love of family and culture with a desire to find one's own path, and one's own faith. Ms Mirza painstakingly details the life of an Indian Muslim family in America and their children's search to feel whole, fulfilled, and content. She captures your mind and heart with an urgency that defies you to stop reading. I guarantee you will be different when you close the book' - Sarah Jessica Parker