Review: A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
A Place For Us is so reminiscent of a life I’m so sure I’ve lived. Fatima Farheen Mirza writes as if she’s recounting a memory from my past. As if the story she writes is one that we’ve all lived through, despite having not. This is a type of prose that should be awarded for how deep it cuts, and how it fleshes out every type of emotion you’ve ever felt — even the ones you don’t realise you have or necessarily want to.
We follow the lives of an Indian American family of five who have gathered together to celebrate the wedding of their eldest daughter, Hadia. Amar, the youngest sibling and only boy, has reunited with his family after a three-year estrangement. The story unfolds from here, weaving through pieces of the past that have led them to this very moment. In Mirza’s distinctive and stunning style of storytelling, we follow a narrative of decades through the eyes of each family member.
At its heart, this book is about family and how parts of a whole sometimes do not align with each other. It is an incredibly moving and poignant family portrait, rife with faith, culture and identity. A Place For Us explores the struggle in truly finding one’s place in this world, both physically and in the presence of others.
In a particularly emotionally charged scene between the two sisters, Hadia and Huda, Mirza prompts the question: ‘How were they to know the moments that would define them?’ Mirza manages to encompass the dire importance of actions and choices made against, with, and around others — reminding readers that what one may find insignificant, may be entirely different for another.
I feel so incredibly attached to these characters, I’ve felt anger and betrayal and pity and joy and pride for these characters throughout the book, as if I was able to pry into the lives of every family member in less than 400 pages. I’m not entirely sure how I got through the last hundred pages, inching towards an ending to a novel I will probably remember for the rest of my life, crying every few pages to the point that I genuinely couldn’t see through my tears when reading the last few pages at 3am!
A friend of mine describes this book as feeling like home, and I genuinely couldn’t agree more. A Place For Us has opened my eyes in countless ways, and I truly believe it’ll be a book I return to often, if not only to indulge in the stunning prose but also as a guide on how to approach the lives of others. Mirza emphasises that we are amalgamations of all our experiences in life, regardless of how little and insignificant it may seem on the surface.
By Saberin C.