A Place for Us: A Novel

A PLACE FOR US BY: FATIMA FARHEEN MIRZA I don't know how attending the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop always guarantees its graduates to succeed in writing masterpieces. The most unforgettable literary fiction that can evoke myriads of emotion comes from writers' who have attended there. This impressive debut novel is no exception. This is a masterfully written new book about a first generation American-Indian family whose religion happens to be Muslim, which explores the love and complexities of every family dynamic that exists in all of humanity. The special bonds that exist between mothers' and sons' are brought to life with rich, vivid detail. The strong bonds that exist between siblings and how birth order effects greater expectations on each individual. Fathers and sons who find themselves in power struggles are expertly displayed. Each character in this novel is inherently good and pure at heart. The powerful and lasting effects of first love are flawlessly depicted. This is also a story of how well intentioned decisions made for what seems at the time, to be the best choices that we make for our children can sometimes backfire, and cause damage that cannot be undone. This novel also explores the vast differences of each individual child, who they inevitably become, and how they react while brought up in the same household with identical values. Each Adult Child takes a different path, and each one will conform, or not conform to their parents' expectations placed on them. The heartbreaking estrangement of a child has lifelong consequences. This is a very impressive debut novel, that will remain with me for a long time. The writing is beautiful, and the character development is superb. I wish more novels were written with such a keen eye to detail. I highly recommend this realistic novel to everyone. It shows us how much we share in common as humans no matter what cultural or religious faith we belong too.

This is indeed a beautiful, haunting, elegaic book, and the way Mirza writes about simple things gives it a certain conviction: we can all identify with the way people blossom and sometimes chafe under the strictures of custom and religion, and the simple quality of everyday life she focuses on is very persuasive. The flaw in the ointment is that the multiple characters from whose viewpoint she writes are all essentially the same character. Everyone is thoughtful, pensive, reflective, and spends considerable time catching up on his or her regretting. Amar, the brother, is the one conflicted wayward character who is charming but a perennial disappointment to his family, and he seems simply to have been born that way; but his inner monologue is yet again thoughtful, pensive, reflective, and rueful, as is that of his outwardly stern father. In the creation of tone poems Mirza is very, very good, and as a first novel this work is amazing. If she wants to mature as a writer, she will have to read her Dickens.

A Place For Us is one of the most beautifully written, well-woven, intricately detailed stories I have read in a very long time. The characters are richly multi-faceted, their experiences, hopes and desires are mesmerizing, and I found myself rooting for every one of them. The author, Fatima Farheen Mirza, has the exceptional ability to create a depth-filled, full-circle rendition of each experience, each thought. Even just a few sentences will convey a range of emotions and reflections that will tell an entire story in a few paragraphs; and indeed, this book tells many different stories and neatly ties each one to form a fluid arc from beginning to end. I was stunned to learn that Ms. Mirza is now only thirty years old. I am awe-struck that she has written this masterpiece as a young woman in her twenties, giving each character, whether they be mothers or fathers or siblings or friends, such precise and genuine angst and yearning. This story revolves around a family living in California, who are Shia Muslims from Hyderabad, India, living a compelling and complex array of experiences as they discover who they are as individuals and their place within their family, their community, and their destiny. I recommend this beautiful and intricate story to everyone, but especially so if your roots lie in the Subcontinent. The familiarity of language, religion, and the immigrant experience is priceless, but even more than that, this story will compel you to reflect on your own experiences and maybe even heighten the understanding of our and our parents' lives.

I hesitate to pen this review because from where I sit, no words of mine could possibly do justice to this breathtakingly beautiful story...but I think to not contribute to the reviews that could encourage other readers to pick this up would be an even greater injustice to the author, who deserves every single word of praise and much more. While this is definitely a beautiful story, it is so unbelievably tragic that I think I'll be revisiting it for many days, and I will most definitely be reading it again... This book both broke my heart and made me smile throughout. Each character is so masterfully and intricately written that you feel as if you truly know them. You feel the love as it blooms in their hearts, their sadness and devastation as each strand of cord that ties them together is broken, their anxiety and inner conflict when they are keeping a secret, their regret and feelings of guilt that motivate them to do both everything and nothing to fix themselves and one another. Even Huda, who seems to be more of a minor character comes through with strength as the decades pass. I love the way that Fatima Farheen Mirza continues to give entirely different perspectives on the same events from each of the characters in the book. Hadia's great love for her entire family that is sometimes challenged for her desire for individual freedoms and equality. Layla's blind love for her son is counterbalanced for the jealousy she guiltily feels over her daughter's preference for Rafiq when they are young. Amar's desire for approval is diminished by what he feels is constant rejection from his community. What was most interesting to me was to recognize that Amar and Rafiq were mirror images of one another. Both wanted nothing more than love and acceptance from one another, but both were too prideful and afraid of rejection to allow themselves to actually pursue it. The saddest part about this story are the feelings they keep hidden in the dark recesses of their hearts and souls until it is too late. So many times throughout the book I found myself saying, JUST SAY IT! TELL THEM! But how like us all it is to keep these most important things tucked away, only to allow our anger and knee-jerk reactions dominate our relationships? Rafiq's narrative is the most heart-wrenching to read as a parent. I related so much to both Hadia and Amar because everyone has been the rebellious teenager who wishes they could just be accepted as they are. But as a parent, and understanding Rafiq's regret at the ripple effect his words and actions had not just in his own life, but in the life of his children left me speechless. How often do I say things to my children that hurt them because I think it is the right thing to say, when really I want to give them the love they are yearning for? The final piece of the story, in which Rafiq finally sets aside his pride and delivers a message to Amar via Abbas, is where I finally teared up and where we finally see Rafiq come full circle to his own desires to know his father as a boy. Beautiful story, beautiful prose and beautiful tragedy. This book is one that will live on for many, many years!

This book was exhausting — and not in a good way. I don’t like to give up on a book, but I wish I had given up on this one at the first time-jump. The author’s decision to tell the story in the most tangled way imaginable made what might have been a decent story a total waste of time. As anyone who reads anything these days knows, the technique of multiple perspectives/timelines is very popular. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it is so frustrating for the reader. This book tops the list of that second category. In each chapter, trying to pinpoint whose point of view I was hearing AND figuring out from elusive phrases how old the three children were so that I could know where in the plot (and I use the term loosely) I was gave me headache after headache. I was never sure if I was reading a flashback, a backstory, or a flash-forward. When I got to Part Four, all I could think was, “What NOW?” The answer to that was that I would be subjected to “reliving” everything that happened in the first three parts from yet a different character, one who had been present and active throughout the first three parts but whose viewpoint had not yet been heard. Oh, joy! I ended up skimming most of Part Four’s 1200 Kindle “pages” (the paperback novel is around 400 pages, and my Kindle format shows the total “locations” to be around 5900). Part of what makes this book so tortuously long is the author’s repeated reporting of every single thought in a character’s head — even the character in Part Four, who gives his own motivations, thoughts, reactions, and emotions for every event and situation already related in the first three parts of the novel. Yes, a knowledge of the characters’ inner workings are important to their development, but a story can have too much of that, especially when SO much of it is unendingly repetitious. In spite of knowing all that went on the characters’ heads and hearts, I felt little empathy for any character in this novel — except maybe Huda, one potentially main character whose thoughts we never really know. Maybe that’s something for which I should be grateful. With four separate parts to this novel, one would hope that the last part would include a satisfactory ending. Not so — and that just made the loss of time and the frequent headaches even more regrettable. Does this author have the gift of writing? Probably. However, it’s suffocated by the unclear transitions from one character or time to another. Save yourself a frustrating read. Find another book on which to spend your time.

This is book I kept seeing everywhere and I knew I would either hate or love it. While I did think it was a bit overly hyped up, I still found it to be a beautiful story full of love, loss, and acceptance. The novel begins as an Indian wedding brings family members back together again. Hadia is the eldest child and the one getting married. Huda is the middle daughter, and lastly there is the youngest son Amar. He is seeing his family for the first time in three years. As the novel continues in flashbacks, we learn what causes this family grief and heartache, and why they have drifted apart. I initially found the timeline to be difficult to follow, as there is no description as to what year events take place, and the passages often jump back and forth. But once I was able to figure out the different plot lines, I found myself fully immersed in the story. I loved watching each of these children come of age under the care of their parents, Rafik and Layla. Layla fiercely loves her children, and puts a bit more focus on Amar. Rafik stands back with a watchful eye, and seems to be the center that keeps the family upright. Amar's struggles with substance abuse were often painful to witness, but Mirza wrote him in such an honest and compelling way. I really felt like I got to know this family and witness their struggles first hand. Throughout the book I felt like Rafik was never showcased as much as the rest of the family. I was therefore ecstatic that the last section is told in first person from his perspective. I thought it brought so much light to the whole family, and he ended up being my favorite character. Everything he did, he did for them. Don't expect this to be a fast read. You will need to take your time, and if you have the patience, you will find yourself completely drawn in to a breathtaking tale of family and everything that goes with it.

This was an incredibly moving, incredibly humanizing, and incredibly sad and loving story. I often read more than 150 books per year, and this is the best book that I read in 2024. So with the year nearly half over, that’s saying something. The authors prose is beautiful, she writes such well-developed and thought out characters, and I fell in love with every member in the family. I would’ve protected every character in the book if I could have, but I know the story wouldn’t have been as meaningful or as moving. 100/10 would recommend.

Gosh, this book was absolutely stunning and yet, and it absolutely broke my heart at the same time. While the story is fiction, every single turned page reminded me that this family is not different from reality. Families are made of people like Rafiq, Layla, Amar, Hadia and Huda. The story of this family captivated me. Their family deals with heartache, joy and happy memories — yet it struggles with sadness, loss, heartache and loneliness. This is what made the story so captivating for me. The author did a beautiful job writing the family’s story with such in-depth character development that provided various perspectives that allowed me to empathize with each family member even having never walked in some of the shoes they wore throughout the story . This book touched on soooo many topics such as marriage, parenthood, sibling relationships, friendships and cultural traditions, but the most powerful topic was LOVE. At the end of this story, I was reminded yet again to never hold your tongue on anything that you want to say to anyone... say what you need to say and love those dear to you. always. no matter what.