Debut novel, ‘A Place for Us’ is a stunner

This novel, the first by 27-year-old California writer Fatima Farheen Mirza, is a stunner, worthy of a place among the finest books ever written about an American family. It opens at the wedding of Hadia, a young doctor who is marrying for love – routine for her generation, but not for her IndianAmerican immigrant parents, Rafiq and Layla.

No matter — all is joyous, except for one tension: Hadia, her younger sister, Huda, and her parents are all anxious because the family’s youngest member, prodigal son Amar, has shown up after having been mostly incommunicado for several years. Amar drinks, smokes, sneaks out of prayers, breaks all the rules and yet is deeply loved by his family despite their estrangement from him.

From this tense affair, the novel travels into the past to tell the family’s story from the points of view of Hadia, Amar and Rafiq. The characters are exquisitely drawn, especially Rafiq, who as an ailing old man looks back at his life as a father.

That this brilliant book’s characters are Muslim immigrants is crucial to its unfolding, but surprisingly unimportant in the sweep of things. It could have been about any number of close American families with strong faith, traditions and pride.

“A Place for Us” is a remarkable, beautiful and timely story, well deserving of the rave reviews it’s getting from every corner. A tip of the hat to actress Sarah Jessica Parker for making it the inaugural offering in her imprint publishing venture.