Monica Ali

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	Photo: © Robin Matthews

Biography

Monica Ali is the daughter of English and Bangladeshi parents. She came to England aged three years, her first home being Bolton in Greater Manchester, and later studied at Oxford University. Her first novel, Brick Lane (2003), is an epic saga about a Bangladeshi family living in the UK, and explores the British immigrant experience. It was shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and made into a film, released in 2007.

Her second novel, Alentejo Blue, set in Portugal, was published in 2006.

Monica Ali lives in London and was named in 2003 by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'. Her latest novel is In the Kitchen (2009).

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Genres (in alphabetical order)

Fiction

Bibliography

Brick Lane   Doubleday, 2003

Alentejo Blue   Doubleday, 2006

In the Kitchen   Doubleday, 2009

Read about books by Monica Ali at encompassculture.com - the British Council's book database and global online book club

Buy books by Monica Ali at Amazon.co.uk

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Prizes and awards

2003   British Book Awards Literary Fiction Award   (shortlist)   Brick Lane

2003   British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year   Brick Lane

2003   Guardian First Book Award   (shortlist)   Brick Lane

2003   Man Booker Prize for Fiction   (shortlist)   Brick Lane

2003   WH Smith People's Choice Award   Brick Lane

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Critical Perspective

Even before Monica Ali had completed her debut novel, Brick Lane (2003), she was being vaunted by her prospective publisher who signed her up after having seen only five chapters of her first draft (BookWire, June 2004). This faith in her skill as a novelist was reiterated by Granta when they based their decision to name her as one of their 'Best of Young British Novelists' in 2003 from just the manuscript. Since the popular and critical success following its publication and the release of her second novel, Alentejo Blue (2006), she has had the opportunity to prove her ability.

Brick Lane is set in the eponymous area of East London and switches occasionally to Bangladesh. It begins with the troubled birth of the central character, Nazneen, in 1967 in what was then known as East Pakistan. After a short preamble, the majority of the novel is concerned with the events after her arranged marriage. She is sent to England at the age of 18, with little knowledge of English, to live with her new, and to her, unappealing husband, Chanu: ‘The man she would marry was old. At least forty years old. He had a face like a frog. They would marry and he would take her back to England with him.’ The story of her sister who remains in Bangladesh is delivered as an additional narrative through her letters. As Geraldine Bedell argues, the inclusion of her news means that the definition of belonging is put into further doubt: ‘The pull of home, and the push of it, is dramatised by Hasina, Nazneen’s sister, who took her fate into her own hands and made a love match, only to see the marriage fall apart and her life spiral out of control’ (The Observer, 15 June 2003).

The overarching theme of fate, and the possibility of challenging it, is signalled in the epigraphs that cite Ivan Turgenev and Heraclitus. The quotation from Turgenev, for example, invites a consideration of powerlessness and the loss of self: ‘Sternly, remorselessly, fate guides each of us; only at the beginning, when we’re absorbed in details, in all sorts of nonsense, in ourselves, are we unaware of its harsh hand.’ In Michael Gorra’s review for the New York Times, he proposes that this negotiation with fate imbues the novel with a complexity that stretches beyond simplistic binary oppositions: ‘Do we, can we, control our own lives? That question propels Ali’s book, in a way that keeps us from reducing it to a simple matter of “East” versus “West”’ (7 September 2003). Brick Lane also avoids such simplifications through its postcolonial critique of imperialism and Englishness. It is within this framework that independence, in terms of human and national identities, is preferred.

In Alentejo Blue, Southern Portugal is used as the setting, and a varied cast is drawn upon. It includes British expatriates and local Portugese inhabitants of the village and is written predominantly in the third person as each chapter moves from the perspective of one character to another. The break from the third person comes with Chrissie and Eileen’s chapters. These are two British women who have separately settled for unhappy domesticity and the act of giving them first person voices may be interpreted as a means to show that they are counteracting their earlier deference to others.

The sadness and desires of the main players (such as Chrissie, Eileen and João) are revealed gradually in this more slowly paced work. The first chapter opens with a death from suicide as the aged João discovers the body of his friend and one time lover, Rui, hanging from a tree. He cuts him down and the readers are told that he is now holding him in his arms for a second time. João’s grief over a lost friendship and missed opportunities is concurrent with the dominant theme of poverty. The narrative returns continuously to the poor economic conditions of the area and the implicit sadness of emotionally unfulfilled lives. This is made explicit with the pronouncement that this was the poorest area in the poorest country of the European Union until recently, but male suicide rates are still the highest. By way of a contrast to the earlier parts of the novel, however, the final chapter looks at this group of seemingly disparate individuals as a community and the moroseness is dispelled.

In comparison to Brick Lane, this is more subdued in its tone and subject matter, and this gives Ali the space to demonstrate a perceptive interpretation of those who are just on the edge of happiness. This is enabled with a strong dose of dramatic irony and occasional humour, which allows for a nuanced portrayal of how the characters misread not only themselves, but also each other. Teresa confidently believes herself to be insightful and is preparing to escape from Portugal to live and work in London as an au pair. When she presumes João must have been married and that he is probably a widower now, her shrewdness is made questionable; however, she is allowed to be half-right, as she imagines him praying at night to a photograph of his dead wife’s ‘unsmiling moustached’ face. A further example of this lack of understanding comes when the different perspectives of the soon-to-be-married Huw and Sophie are given in the third person and the readers are made privy to their misinterpretations of each other. 

In both novels, Ali chooses contemporary storylines and keeps a focus on the connections between geography, identity and human relationships. Apart from these general points of commonality, these works are made distinct from each other in tone and subject matter and the second demonstrates a potential for subtlety that was not so apparent in the first. Alentejo Blue is less exuberant than Brick Lane and has received a far more dampened response from the critics, but it does not follow that this makes it less valuable. Ali has managed to create a different fictional landscape and in so doing has distanced this novel from the initial hype that marked the beginning of her writing career.    

Julie Ellam, 2007    

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Contact information

Publisher (General enquiries) Doubleday (UK) c/o Transworld Publishers 61-63 Uxbridge Road London  W5 5SA England Tel: +44 (0)20 8579 2652 Fax: +44 (0)20 8579 5479 E-mail: info@transworld-publishers.co.uk http://www.booksattransworld.co.uk

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