List $36.95

Written by Monica Ali - Performed by Elizabeth Sastre - Abridged Fiction - 10 COMPACT DISCS - 12 hours

Publisher, HighBridge Audio (September 2003)

2004 Audie Award Winner for 'Best Abridged Fiction' Audiobook, presented by the Audio Publishers Association for excellence in audio publishing.

A stunning debut novel by the only unpublished writer named one of the best young British Novelists 2003 by 'Granta' -- an announcement which came before her first novel was even published.

The praise for this penetrating debut doesn't stop there. The printed edition of this title received the following awards and accolades:

• Winner First Place in the Fiction Category of the 2003 Barnes & Noble Discover Award
• Winner Debut Novel, WH Smith People's Choice Book Awards
• 2003 Booker Prize Finalist
• The National Book Critics Circle Fiction Finalist
• 2004 Kiriyama Prize Fiction Finalist

This abridged audiobook was an Audie Award Abridged Fiction Finalist.

Are we powerless before fate? This broad question floats above Brick Lane, sinks slowly through the air over Bangladesh, and finally comes to rest on the windowsill of a small East End flat. This is the story of two sisters--one who chooses her destiny by opting for a "love marriage" and one who lets destiny dictate her future when she is married off to an older man and moves with him to a small, claustrophobic London flat.

But in a classic twist of fate, the sister who chooses her fate meets bitter hardship while Nazneen slowly comes to understand that she can affect the course of her own destiny. This beautifully rendered transformation happens slowly, quietly in the confines of her small flat, then suddenly and with brilliance through the person of the fiery young radical, Karim. In Brick Lane, Ali shows us that, as with most of life, the question of fate is not understood through sharply defined truths, rather through slow ripening and willingness to embrace sometimes opposing ideas.

About the Author: Monica Ali was born in Bangladesh to an English mother and a Bangladeshi father. She moved to England in 1971 when she was three years old. She was educated at Oxford and lives in London.