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The Bones of Grace

ebook

On the eve of her departure from Boston to find the bones of the walking whale—the fossil that provides a missing link in our evolution—Zubaida Haque falls in love with Elijah Strong, a man she meets in a darkened concert hall.

The two immediately connect despite their differences: Elijah belongs to a prototypical American family, whereas Zubaida is the adopted daughter of a wealthy family in Dhaka.

But when a twist of fate sends her back to her hometown, the inevitable force of society compels her to take a very different path, and before she knows it she's married to her childhood best friend and discontentedly settled into a traditional Bangladeshi life.

In a final bid to escape familial constraints, she moves to Chittagong to help make a documentary film about the infamous shipbreaking beaches, where ships are destroyed and their various parts put up for sale.

Here she meets Anwar, a shipbreaker whose story holds a key that unlocks for Zubaida not only the mysteries of her past but the possibilities of a new life—and she will make a choice from which she can never turn back.

Tahmima Anam is an anthropologist and novelist. Her debut novel, A Golden Age, was winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. In 2013, she was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. She is a judge for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize and a Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she now lives in London. Her most recent novel is The Bones of Grace.

'[Anam] weaves a wealth of curious facts into a plot that itself is mesmerising, and does so with some gorgeous descriptive prose...[Her] characters are multifaceted, all have flaws, and the reader cannot help but care about their fate...A brilliant read.' BookMooch

'Fierce and intimate, lyrical and expansive, The Bones of Grace offers what a great novel does: symphonic movements, historical landscapes that shape our private landscapes of love and life, mysteries and enchantments, the unforgettable and the unforgotten. Tahmima Anam is a mesmerizer.' Yiyun Li, author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

'Expansive yet intimate, weighty yet incisively funny, The Bones of Grace is a powerful examination of what it means to live in a world of collapsing boundaries and conflicting values. Few people write about identity and culture with such elegance and intelligence as Tahmima Anam.' Tash Aw, author of Five Star Billionaire

'A novel of heart, brain, and muscle—the competing pulls of history and love are evoked here with a rare honesty, and great skill.' Kamila Shamsie, author of A God in Every Stone

'Intricately structured, [The Bones of Grace] attempts to reassemble all its floating clues and end at its starting point, with its heroine reconstructing an elliptical past and searching for an elusive future...the story is speckled with anecdotes from the history of a country both young and very old.' Guardian

'A twisting, fantastical tale of fate, chance and opportunities missed...Anam's chief strength as a novelist is her knack for richly detailed and peopled worlds...We are taken on a meandering carpet ride through some exotic and surprising places, and there's much to be enjoyed in that.' Australian

'The Bones of Grace has at its heart not war but the shattering effects of conflicted love...Zubaida's choice between love and duty is reminiscent of Anna Karenina' Financial Times 

'A novel of heart, brain, and muscle – the competing pulls of history and love are evoked here with a rare...


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Publisher: The Text Publishing Company

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9781922253590
  • File size: 2164 KB
  • Release date: May 30, 2016

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9781922253590
  • File size: 2164 KB
  • Release date: May 30, 2016

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OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

Fiction Literature

Languages

English

On the eve of her departure from Boston to find the bones of the walking whale—the fossil that provides a missing link in our evolution—Zubaida Haque falls in love with Elijah Strong, a man she meets in a darkened concert hall.

The two immediately connect despite their differences: Elijah belongs to a prototypical American family, whereas Zubaida is the adopted daughter of a wealthy family in Dhaka.

But when a twist of fate sends her back to her hometown, the inevitable force of society compels her to take a very different path, and before she knows it she's married to her childhood best friend and discontentedly settled into a traditional Bangladeshi life.

In a final bid to escape familial constraints, she moves to Chittagong to help make a documentary film about the infamous shipbreaking beaches, where ships are destroyed and their various parts put up for sale.

Here she meets Anwar, a shipbreaker whose story holds a key that unlocks for Zubaida not only the mysteries of her past but the possibilities of a new life—and she will make a choice from which she can never turn back.

Tahmima Anam is an anthropologist and novelist. Her debut novel, A Golden Age, was winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. In 2013, she was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. She is a judge for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize and a Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she now lives in London. Her most recent novel is The Bones of Grace.

'[Anam] weaves a wealth of curious facts into a plot that itself is mesmerising, and does so with some gorgeous descriptive prose...[Her] characters are multifaceted, all have flaws, and the reader cannot help but care about their fate...A brilliant read.' BookMooch

'Fierce and intimate, lyrical and expansive, The Bones of Grace offers what a great novel does: symphonic movements, historical landscapes that shape our private landscapes of love and life, mysteries and enchantments, the unforgettable and the unforgotten. Tahmima Anam is a mesmerizer.' Yiyun Li, author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

'Expansive yet intimate, weighty yet incisively funny, The Bones of Grace is a powerful examination of what it means to live in a world of collapsing boundaries and conflicting values. Few people write about identity and culture with such elegance and intelligence as Tahmima Anam.' Tash Aw, author of Five Star Billionaire

'A novel of heart, brain, and muscle—the competing pulls of history and love are evoked here with a rare honesty, and great skill.' Kamila Shamsie, author of A God in Every Stone

'Intricately structured, [The Bones of Grace] attempts to reassemble all its floating clues and end at its starting point, with its heroine reconstructing an elliptical past and searching for an elusive future...the story is speckled with anecdotes from the history of a country both young and very old.' Guardian

'A twisting, fantastical tale of fate, chance and opportunities missed...Anam's chief strength as a novelist is her knack for richly detailed and peopled worlds...We are taken on a meandering carpet ride through some exotic and surprising places, and there's much to be enjoyed in that.' Australian

'The Bones of Grace has at its heart not war but the shattering effects of conflicted love...Zubaida's choice between love and duty is reminiscent of Anna Karenina' Financial Times 

'A novel of heart, brain, and muscle – the competing pulls of history and love are evoked here with a rare...


Expand title description text