A PLACE FOR US is one of the most beautiful books that I've read this year; I have recommended it to countless friends and colleagues and cannot say enough good things about the author's work.

Intrigued not only by the culture and tradition of the family in this novel, I was also stunned by the relatability of its characters through the world of addiction and the destruction it often leaves in its wake; the themes within the novel really hit close to home, for me, and I felt completely connected to the narrative.

Highly recommend to those who are fans of powerful family dramas and beautifully-wrought characters; please give this one a try!

Who are isn't defined by one moment, one act or event. Rather it is thousands of small moments, each one weaving into the next which creates a life.
A Place for Us is a book about the importance of moments. Rafiq and Layla are strangers in a strange land having emigrated Hyderabad to live in California. Although they are a family from a culture and a religion apart, this book is far more about what humanity shares than what separates one person from another. As the story unfolds, the reader moves backward and forward in time towards two pivotal events, two times when Aram, the youngest brother, will walk away from his home and family. But what happens before to cause such a dramatic action? The answer isn't a simple one and Fatima Farheen Mirza is generous and delicate as she unfolds layer after layer of one family's life.
A Place for Us is a book to be savored slowly and with great care. The characters are relatable, multi-dimensional and stole my heart completely long before I ever entered the heart of the story. I can hardly believe this was a first novel, and I will certainly eagerly read anything else Ms. Mirza releases.

I wanted to like this book so much, but I unfortunately had problems with it. It took me a long time to read, I often was bored, and the end is extremely upinconclusive which left me disappointed,
On the positive side, it is an interesting take of an immigrant family, interesting situations such as cultures of home vs the new place to live, religion, differing values, and being away from what is familiar. It goes from a young woman leaving India to be a bride, to that woman becoming a grandmother. The characters in the family struggle with keeping tradition versus what they really want to do. Bending a breaking the rules in an attempt to find happiness. The youngest child, Amar struggles the most with trying to keep his family happy, and making himself happy.
Some issues are foreign to me, while others ring true for all families. I just wish it wrapped up with a more conclusive note on something at the end ( keeping it vague to avoid spoilers)

One of my favorite lines in literature comes from Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton .

"Because we all love imperfectly."

This quote captures my soul and summarizes my life. If I were ever to write, this would be a theme uniting all my works just as Ann Patchett writes about strangers being thrown together and having to deal. A Place for Us could be summarized with that quote.

I was lucky enough to receive a galley of the novel before publication and even luckier to secure a signed copy of it through The First Edition Club at Parnassus Books. And on the eve of the first day of school, I finally was swept into the story.

As many people may warn you, it starts out slow. The opening scene takes place at the wedding of the eldest daughter in a family of three children- two girls and a boy. The bride secretly contacted her estranged brother, hoping he could attend. The story is told fluidly traveling through time covering the parents’ engagement through the wedding of their eldest daughter. It’s the story of a family. It’s the story of how trauma happens causing some people to display grit and others to spiral out of control. I loved it because it was real. I loved it because it was messy. Life is messy. Love is messy.

While the novel was set in America, it allowed me to experience life from a culture that is not my own. The family are Muslims of Indian background and yet all children were born in America. The questions the children encountered throughout their life seemed painful and yet they were constant and unavoidable. Their experiences after 9/11 broke my heart when life changed for them the moment the first plane hit.

Read this, stick with it, it is so worth it!

This book was hard for me because I wanted to like it but I really struggled with the writing, pace and overall lack of emotion and/or drama to the storyline. Amar returns to attend his sister Hadia's wedding and I initially was drawn in to the possibility of family turmoil and drama because it's clear that while his sister wants him there, no one else in the family seems to. However, I found there was a lack of actually bringing that drama and tension through in the writing. There was descriptions of tiny, irrelevant things,(the hallway, the rooms, etc) that detracted from actually getting to the heart of the storyline. I felt bored. By the end, I wasn't any more connected to the characters and found the latter part to be chock full of religious talk and issues. This wasn't; for me

A Place For Us, the first imprint from Sarah Jessica Parker for Hogarth Publishing, was a finely balanced story of family, tradition and love. There’s no great action or defining climax to the story. Instead, it’s a slow burn told from many character’s perspectives, offering vignettes of life inside of this family.

Being good enough, honoring thy father, Islamaphobia, living post September 11th as a Muslim American, wanting a love marriage instead of an arranged one, questioning the disconnection from religion, unrequited love, keeping secrets from those you love most, protecting your heritage and living up to the expectations of society both socially and economically were all thoughtfully considered.

The lucid and lyrical writing sucks you right into this story. An unexpected ending will leave you thinking about these characters for days. I look forward to what’s next for this fabulous debut novel.

A Place for Us is the first book in Sarah Jessica Parker's imprint for Hogarth.  It has received a lot of press, and because it is the story of an Indian-American Muslim family that now lives in California I was highly looking forward to reading this to learn more about the culture.  I enjoy books that broaden my horizons.
The book begins when Hadid, the oldest of three children, is getting married in a love match rather than an arranged marriage.  Her brother, Amar, has been estranged from the family for the last three years but arrives for the wedding after being invited by Hadid. I immediately wondered what had happened within the family.  Mirza proceeds to unfold their story in flashbacks and alternating chapters from various member's point of view.  Rafiq and Layla, the parents, were married in an arranged marriage before moving to the United States.  Rafiq is portrayed as a strong, traditional Muslim man who expects rules and tradition to be followed.  His wife, Layla, is a little less stern and from time to time breaks outside the cultural box and allows her children to as well.  The parents have very different expectations for their oldest child and youngest child.  The middle child, Huda, and the relationship there weren't as fleshed out like the others, though.

This book has received glowing 5-star reviews from a lot of reviewers.  What I did love about the book is the examination of the different relationships and family dynamics which have similarities across all cultures, while also learning more about the immigrant experience and the unique challenges that presents.  In most of the reviews I've read, her eloquent writing is highly praised, and most have felt her flashbacks were written seamlessly.  I do not agree with the majority on this; however,  I loved her beautiful use of language but felt there could have been some editing on the first half of the book.  The flashbacks were not flowing seamlessly for me and felt disruptive to the story.  She deftly examines the characters, and they are realistically portrayed.  What I also liked is that you might think someone is acting in a particular way until you learn more about what's behind the actions, and like life, there are not always black and white answers to everything.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for copy to review for an honest opinion.

Hadia, a first generation Muslim American whose parents hail from India, is getting married as the story opens. Their estranged brother and son, Amar, will be attending after a 3 year hiatus of not seeing any of his family. It is obviously a family in distress whose love is apparent.
As the story unfolds, Amar isn't able to comply with the strict upbringing that his father demands. He is a favorite of his mother which only adds to the destruction and disappointment of his father. Hadia, the oldest daughter, seems to be fulfilling the spot that Amar was suppose to occcupy.
Amar falls deeply in love with a young woman and there the deception and lies begin by the character who might not suspect. From that point on, Amar unravels as do all members of his family, leaving no one untouched.
It is hard to believe that this is Mirza's first book. Her writing grabs you immediately with its beautiful prose and captivating story. If this is any indication of her future writings, I am undoubtedly a fan!

A gorgeous character-driven tale that I'm glad to have taken my time to finish. Mirza meticulously explores the complicated dynamics within this Indian-American Muslim family by jumping back and forth in time to examine events from multiple perspectives and focusing on the minutiae of everyday life. The final portion devoted to Rafiq's point of view truly ties everything together. My sole complaint is that readers are treated to very little of middle sibling Huda, who adds so little to the overall story that I don't fully understand the point of her inclusion. However, this is a minor quibble with a book containing such richly drawn characters that they practically leap off of the pages.

I was a bit skeptical of this book because of the celebrity imprint. However, as Sarah Jessica Parker has chosen a literary novel versus a glamorous coffee table book, I was compelled to look into it. This is a careful, well-written book despite its anachronisms (no doubt, these were included to make the book more palatable to a Western audience.) What's most interesting is how we see certain events through multiple perspectives -- this kind of writing takes a bit of craft and skill which is not often found in debut novels. Also not found in debut novels by writers of South Asian origin is the restraint that Mirza has shown here, reminiscent of another wonderful writer of similar origins: Jhumpa Lahiri.

[Full review will be published at PopMatters.com and I will add the review then.]

This book was wonderful in terms of character development. I have given it to lots of patrons at our library and told all my friends about it. I enjoyed the slow pace and the inner thoughts of the characters. Part four was my favorite part of the whole book.

This novel continually astounded me with the beauty of the writing. On the surface, it is a story about an immigrant and first generation Indian-American family. Layla and Rafiq come from the Muslim Shia community in Hyderabad, India. Living in California, they raise three children. Spanning several decades, this story tells of their lives, and their children’s lives, of the struggles between their long held traditions, faith, and way of life, versus what their children encounter in this modern culture.
But there are even more universal themes here, ones that resonated with me on an intense emotional level. The family-- the relationships between spouses, between parent and child, and between siblings-- are portrayed with great insight and with great detail to the emotional nuances that occur over a lifetime. This is also a story of faith, one that grows beyond rigidity and rules, to encompass mercy, forgiveness, and love. This one will stay with me for a long time.
My thanks to Netgalley, the author, and SJP through Hogarth/Crown Publishers , for providing me an advance copy of this book. This is one I will buy, both for myself and others.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2299831327

This was such a great novel - I loved falling right into this family and seeing what it was that hard torn them apart. That said - I have read a string of novels about Muslim families just recently (Home Fires, Three Daughters of Eve, this one) and the other two were also SUCH good reads. If I had to rank them, this one would be third of three. Home Fires winning by far.

This was a GEM 9f a read! 5 brilliant stars for A Place For Us. It s a complex and emotional story about a Muslim family who are first generation Americans - trying to navigate parenthood while simultaneously preserving their culture and faith.. This character driven family drama has many layers weaved into the plot. It jumps between timelines and perspectives, gradually establishing a comfortable rhythm. The reader is allowed an intimate view into this family's struggles and strengths as well as their successes and failures. It is ultimately about being human and how our own experiences affect future generations.

Although this story started off a tad slow for me, the prose was engaging and ultimately kept me engaged. About a third of the way through I was hooked and by the halfway point, I was mesmerized. This story was one that required time to digest and process after finishing. I was emotionally impacted and needed some time before writing this review. It made me think about my own parenting - the flaws I've made as well as my hopes, my dreams and my expectations that I have for my children and the impact of such.

If you are en emotional reader like me, then you will most likely be drawn into this book. It is one that will leave you heartbroken yet satisfied and pondering long after you finish reading. Enjoy!!

A heartfelt thank you for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. It is available now for purchase.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars for A Place For Us by @ffmirza and @sarahjessicaparker , and a huge thank you to @prhinternational for sending this free copy to me for review.
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The story is about a family, who tries a find a place in a foreign country despite the differences. A couple who try to raise their three children in a very challenging environment. Their children who try their best to follow their parents teachings, traditions and religious views. A heartfelt story of the relationship of a father, with his daughters but mostly his beloved SON.
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This story is beautifully put together, it shows how, when sometimes we try to do good for our loved ones and they dont see that way. Being the oldest sister i could understand SO many things from Hadia’s (the oldest daughter) POV. But what really broke my heart was the dad’s story towards Amar. I dont have a son or a brother. But i could feel all the feels from the sisters, fathers, mothers and even Amar him selves POV.
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Let me tell you that the writing is not glazed in fancy literature. The book almost has YA feels. And that it is heavy on the heart. Specially if you are desi, because you can related to almost everything. I would highly recommend this book. Words can not do justice so i’ll stop now and let you read and decide for yourself 😅❤️
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#bibliophile #prhpartner #prhinternational #randomhouse #partner #ad #sponsor #fun #love #cute #happy #picoftheday

A Place for Us opens just before the beginning of an Indian family wedding in California. The bride, Hadia, is hoping that her brother, Amar, will show up. No one in the family has seen him for three years, but Hadia hopes their bond is strong enough to bring him back, despite the problems with their father that made him run away. Amar does attend—marking the wedding as both an ending and the beginning of Fatima Mirza’s debut novel about complicated family relationships.

A Place for Us is one of those novels I welcome because, beyond the larger sphere of human nature and relationships it shares a smaller slice of life unlike any I know. Hadia’s family is Muslim and Mirza’s portrayal of their lives is fascinating and sometimes unfathomable. Although set in modern times, the pervasive cultural belief is the importance of a male heir so the pressure is put on the woman to bear males and for those males to succeed and further the family line. Really? Still? Just as far-fetched are the beliefs that women are responsible for men’s sins of desire and are incapable of taking care of themselves.

Archaic misogyny aside, there is the beauty of unfamilar rituals and their impact on the participants:

Her mother touched Hadia’s forehead with her index finger and traced Ya Ali in Arabic, the gesture done for protection and luck before every first day of school, every big exam…Something about the movement of her mother’s finger on her forehead, the look of concentration on her face as she prayed, calmed and comforted Hadia.

The tenderness of scenes like this bring the novel to life, which is necessary because A Place for Us is largely an introspective novel. There is very little action or plot and much of the novel’s information is relayed in flashbacks. Initially, this makes for an odd juxtaposition because although there is very little action happening, Mirza cuts quickly back and forth in time amongst generations, which can become quite confusing.

As things settle, Mirza focuses on the innermost thoughts and motivations of Hadia, her mother, and, in the last part, her father. Much of these memories revolve around Amar and their history with him with each feeling they failed him. This is poignant, in the way of all family secrets and pain, but we never hear from Amar, the character at the center of all their lives, which left me unsatisfied. Mirza shares only his vague sense of never belonging, but doesn’t do so in enough detail for me to have gotten a sense of why he felt this way and why he chose to remove completely himself from the family. Despite these shortcomings, A Place for Us is an exquisitely written debut and Mirza a promising writer.

A PLACE FOR US by Fatima Farheen Mirza is a thought-provoking debut which deals with the inter-generational relationships and personal lives of a Muslim family in America. Parents Rafiq and Layla are from India. They struggle to impart their values, language, and religious traditions as the children (daughters Hadia and Huda and son Amar) become young adults, all working to balance expectations with their own doubts and daily realities. A PLACE FOR US is the first novel from Sarah Jessica Parker's new imprint and it received a starred review from School Library Journal. The novel is told from different perspectives and that helps define and build empathy for the characters, particularly the troubled and rebellious nature of Amar. I liked the establishment of this story very much, but felt it then became fairly slow and repetitive. Perhaps that was a result of frequently changing perspective and time periods? Or a feeling that readers needed more explanation to understand the characters? By the midpoint, I preferred more action and less description which in turn could have also contributed to a shorter book. A PLACE FOR US, with its focus on family dynamics, assimilation, and social messages, could work as a text for Junior Theme, but its roughly 400 page length will be a deterrent to some students. Publishers Weekly called Mirza "a writer to watch" and I hope to read more of her work. This link leads to a helpful discussion guide: : https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564304/a-place-for-us-by-fatima-farheen-mirza/9781524763558/readers-guide/

This title was highlighted at a recent Bookstall presentation on new Spring and Summer titles by publisher representatives. More info: https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1268-sarah-jessica-parker-s-next-big-challenge-book-publishing

Thank you to Crown Publishing/SJP for Hogarth, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!

I was curious to read A Place for Us after I kept seeing it pop up on my feeds, each time with glowing praise. The fact that it's also the debut novel in Sarah Jessica Parker's new imprint for Hogarth drew me in even more. Almost as soon as I started the book, I knew it was going to be great, and before I was even a quarter of the way in, I knew I would end up rating it 5/5 stars.

A Place for Us is about an Indian-American Muslim family that includes parents Layla and Rafiq and their three children: Hadia, Huda, and Amar. The story opens with Amar coming home to attend his sister's wedding after being estranged from the family for three years. From there, Mirza takes us back in time to discover how the family came to be broken. This story has everything you could ever want and it's exactly the kind of book I would want to write - one that is subtly powerful in how it unravels the intricacies of complex human issues without being too dense or 'literary'.

I can tell that Mirza is someone who really gets people. I imagine her as the type of person who always carries a notebook with her (just like Amar) and is constantly scribbling little notes to herself as she observes the people around her. Her character development was phenomenal. I felt for each of the primary characters, and even though some of them did horrible things (the consequences of which could never really be reversed) I found that I loved each and every one of them.

Overall, this book is about relationships. Mirza captured how no two relationships are ever the same and how you can never truly know another person. While you may think you know someone, you'll never have access to the depth of each person's thoughts, experiences, emotions, and motivations.
Other major themes in the book are identity/belonging and the clash between tradition/religion and the outside influences of Western culture.

A Place for Us is absolutely wonderful. It's definitely in my top 10 for this year, if not higher! It's one of those ones you actually want to own, just so you can hold it and give it it's special place on your shelves.

Fatima Farheen Mirza's A Place for Us has been widely celebrated since its release in mid-June. Lauded for the brilliant display of writing found within these pages equally as much as it has been coveted as Sarah Jessica Parker’s first release from her own publishing imprint, SJP for Hogarth, putting on display her own eye for literary fiction. It was a read that built upon itself in a sort of snowball effect: slow and gently vibrating beneath the surface as the foundation was laid then tumbling still gently but faster down the slope. I found myself comparing it to Everything I Never Told You in its elegance of execution and vibrant, meaningful display of first-generation families trying to navigate the complexities of American life, of a culture so unlike their own. This story is told in metaphors and blood ties. It’s told in memories, regrets, hopes and fears. It’s told in a universal language embedded in one specific culture that any reader can see embodied in their own families. Novels like this one remind us that our families are not so strange or cruel or different at their cores. We all speak the same universal language.

There were so many beautiful moments in Mirza’s debut novel—a book written in vignettes of this family’s life like they jumbled together then come back into focus like a stunning glimpse through a kaleidoscope. I won’t give a synopsis here because the one provided is so fiercely accurate, but I will say that there was so much more to the estrangement of the son and brother, Amar, than I had hoped for. At the start of the novel, with no chapter titles or markers for whose POV was coming next, I couldn’t seem to get my bearings enough to plant roots in the narrative and grow with it. But, eventually, I found my way and moved with the story faster and faster as it picked up speed.
The vignettes were light as a gentle breeze softly lifting a lock of hair, like whispers in your ear. And that was lovely, sure. But, admittedly, there were times when I found myself looking for something more—a climax, any hint of tangible, startling tension. And when I did find it, I couldn’t hold on to it long enough to feel fully satisfied. Perhaps that was the point of the read--Mirza's parting message to us, among others--but it left me unfulfilled. (view spoiler) Yet, I felt like I got an honest glimpse at a culture I’m unfamiliar with, like I was sitting at their dinner table with them. At the start I didn’t feel fully embedded in the story. But toward the end, I knew I couldn’t get up from that dinner table and walk away.

All of the characters, especially the siblings at the forefront of the narrative--Hadia, Huda and Amar--are so beautifully and delicately rendered and allowed to unfold. They are complete characters--their parents Rafiq and Layla included--set in their ways and flaws and hopes and dreams in a way that grabs our hearts because we understand them; we root for them and believe we know what their next moves would be, what their truest fears are. A Place for Us is a character-driven piece with such fully imagined characters who quietly take up the page. It tied loose ends together with stunning clarity (view spoiler).

I truly loved how embedded in the Hyderabadi culture this novel was. I knew nothing of the culture and traditions—had never even heard the word “Hyderabadi” before—and yet I could feel the resolution with which this family lived in their faith, the effect it had on them, the generations upon generations of history that each of them carried—both in their routines handed down and in their hearts.

If his father had just hit him back, cursed at him, said to Mumma look how despicable our son is, how batamiz, anything—then maybe he could have gone home again. A punishment was a mercy. It marked the end of a sentence. Without one, he could not imagine recovering from his shame. Nor could he forgive himself for giving action to the hatred he had felt for his father, wanting to hurt him the way he had been hurt by him.


There were moments here where Mirza truly brought these characters into focus even from a Western standpoint, painting them at the time of 9/11—their reaction to it and the fear they carried with them not at all unlike our own. The racism they endured; the ignorance others harbored about them. Those moments stung the way they were intended to; they spoke loudly as they needed to. I will say I'm not a huge fan of the book title or the cover, but this was certainly a brilliant debut from both Fatima Farheen Mirza and this new imprint--both of which I’ll be sure to keep a lookout for in the future! Four stars ****

Full review to follow soon. One of the best books I've read this year. A family drama with all the emotional turbulence that results when one brother decides to leave the family. Casts a well-needed center-stage spotlight on a contemporary Muslim-Indian-American family.