Book Review: A Place For Us

This sweeping novel really took me away and made me feel like a part of Rafiq and Layla's family.

It starts off at a wedding of Rafiq and Layla's daughter, Hadia where her brother Amar is clearly uncertain about his place in the family and has been gone for a long time. The story about why this family is clearly so displaced unfolds as the book progresses, moving from different characters and different periods of their life as a family. I loved the different narrators and the unique way they told their side of the story, gradually revealing different aspects without retelling the story.

It was beautiful, especially the Part 4 where Baba took over and told his side of the story. However, I had a hard time truly getting into the story because it jumped back and forth between years so much. I wish the author would at least started a new chapter or put a date between paragraphs so that you would have know there was a change in time.

I really enjoyed learning so much about Indian-American Muslim cultural and this book did an amazing job of describing their rituals and beliefs. I learned a lot.

I chose to read this because it was Sarah Jessica Parker's first book published by her imprint with Hogarth books and I have been seeing rave reviews for it all over bookstagram. I am happy I checked it out!

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