Tanwi Nandini Islam

Bright Lines is the story of the Brooklyn-dwelling Saleem family that has immigrated from Bangladesh to enjoy the American dream. However, behind the perfect facade of their restored Brooklyn home, Anwar and Hashi are struggling with secrets from the past and discontent with the present. Their two college age daughters are stumbling their way into their futures. Much to her mother's dismay, Hashi and Anwar's biological daughter Charu seems in no hurry to make something of herself, instead show more choosing to wile away her time with boys and attempting to design clothes for the fashion label she dreams of. Adopted daughter Ella is quiet and awkward but has an unparalleled way with plants. In one transformative year, the family will have to face up to their secrets and the country of their past to learn to live again in the country of their future.

To be quite honest, I struggled with Bright Lines at the outset. It's slow to get started, and while the characters sprang to life, occasionally the dialogue was awkward and wooden. Anwar's dialogue in particular is sprinkled with pedantic tangents that allowed my attention to wander.

That said, Bright Lines really grew on me. Islam has that rare talent that can render New York City into something that seems somehow magical. The Saleems' Brooklyn house with its carefully tended oasis of a garden springs off the page. Maya, Charu, and Ella's adventures to parties and to the beach have the New York City grit stripped away to reveal a new place with undercurrents of possibility.

Islam's characters are undeniably unique and all are fully realized. Anwar, haunted by the war in his home country and the loss of his best friend, has become an herbal pharmacist and a shameless good-natured pothead. Hashi, more educated by far than your average salon worker, uses her understanding of psychology to transform people's outsides to mirror their true selves when she isn't busy coiffing bridesmaids for weddings. Charu is the pampered princess receiving all the benefits her immigrant parents have striven to give her and squandering them on boys and temper tantrums. Ella, uncomfortable in her own skin and plagued by vivid hallucinations since the death of her parents, is still struggling to find her own identity.

Islam renders Bangladesh with the same artful hand she uses to bring NYC to life, contrasting beautiful beaches with wretched slums. She sets present day Bangladesh in stark contrast to the war torn state of Anwar and Hashi's youth. In a country that endured a painful transformation, Islam expertly guides the Saleem family through a terrible transformation of their own until the scars and the rebirth of both are gently intertwined.

Bright Lines, while not perfect, is an extremely promising debut for Tanwi Nandini Islam. I'll be looking forward to the next novel from this author who easily draws the magical out of the ordinary. show less

What a collection of vivid characters, and a plot that expands from a very fondly viewed Brooklyn to Bangladesh during the India-Pakistan War. Ella and Charu are sister-cousins living with Hashi and Anwar, their parents. Charu is very much a modern, immodest 18 year old, and Ella has never discovered her place, at home or in college.

The author sends her smooth narrative gliding along from the main characters at work and at leisure in gentrified Brooklyn, then back and forth to Anwar and show more Hashi's traumatic lives in their homeland. And, as so often occurs with immigrants, the final return home is equally painful and joyous. As is this novel, filled with so many pleasures and shot through with lightning strikes of pain, disloyalty, and passion. O the humanity! Highly recommended. show less

Hot damn, there's a whole lot going on in Tanwi Nandini Islam's Bright Lines, which I received in the now defunct Book Riot Quarterly Box. Most authors couldn't handle this many plotlines and so many rich, interesting characters without confusing the reader or watering down parts of the story or turning the story into a 1,000+ page tome. Thankfully, Islam is not most authors and she did an incredible job.

The story closely follows Ella and Charu, cousins who were raised as sisters after the show more death of Ella's parents. They live with Charu's parents, Hashi and Anwar, in Brooklyn - which is quite different than Charu's native Bangladesh.

There are so many stories woven together in this book: Ella's gender and sexual identity, Charu's failed attempts to gain the physical intimacy she's missing, Anwar's difficulty with, well, most things . . . and it goes on and on.

This was a book that was just absolutely dazzling to read. Following several characters to India was icing on this complicated, rich cake. I liked this book when I read it a few months ago but after having had some time to sit on it, I'm awed by how much it was able to accomplish. show less

This is a really engrossing immigrant family drama, parts of which feel very familiar, not that different from the experiences of my mother's family. Immigrant parents, American children, family left behind in the old country, old family issues that didn't disappear because they moved away.

The difference, of course, is that this family are Muslims from Bangladesh.

Anwar and Hashi Saleem have built a good life in Brooklyn, where they have raised their daughter Charu and their orphaned niece show more Ella--daughter of Hashi's brother and his wife, murdered by old enemies from the war years. Ella is in college now; Charu has just graduated high school and will start college in the fall. Anwar runs Anwar's Apothecary, selling herbal health and beauty products which he makes himself. Hashi operates a beauty salon out of a portion of their house.

All four have a summer of discovery and upheaval ahead of them.

Ella comes home from college to find Charu's friend Maya, daughter of a local Muslim cleric, asleep in her bed. Maya has run away from a home life that is increasingly not just strict, but oppressive and even emotionally abusive. Anwar and Hashi decide to let her stay.

The three girls have a summer of adventure, self-discovery, and sensual exploration. Anwar, meanwhile, struggles with his memories of Bangladesh's war for independence from Pakistan, a marriage that has perhaps grown a bit dull after thirty years, and the temptations of a beautiful tenant living on the top floor. He and Hashi both worry for the two girls they've raised and love. When all their secrets blow up for all of them, Anwar packs his family off to Bangladesh to visit their surviving family--Hashi's father and surviving brother, and her dead brother's adopted son.

More discoveries and revelations await them.

This is a novel of character exploration and growth, not a whizzbang plot. The Saleems and their friends and family are flawed, fascinating, and mostly very likable people.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher via Penguin's First to Read program show less