A Place for Us: A Novel by Fatima Farheen Mirza

by Ryna Zubair

A Place for Us unfolds the lives of an Indian American Muslim family, gathered together in their Californian hometown to celebrate the eldest daughter Hadia's wedding, a match of love rather than tradition It is here, on this momentous day, that Amar, the youngest son, reunites with his family for the first time in three years. Their parents, Rafiq and Layla, must now face the choices and betrayals that lead to their son's estrangement, the reckoning of parents who strove to pass on their cultures and traditions to their children, and the struggle of children to balance authenticity in themselves with loyalty to the home they came from. Rafiq and Layla barely knew one another when they immigrated to the United States, but they were aligned in their goal of starting a devoted family Their story is just one example of an immigrant story in that long line of American experiences about religious parents battling to uphold tradition in the face of a secular world, meant to lead their children astray.

Mirza, however, adds an element of real commitment that makes it impossible for the parents to abandon their faith, complicating the repetitive tale

Hadia and her sister feel constrained by their parents' rigid expectations and have no intention of consenting to arranged marriages or lives of servitude and upholding honor. However, they too receive the Prophet's message and experience the same currents of faith. The sole distinction is their determination to pioneer a new Muslim lifestyle in the West.

Amar becomes the family's open sore He is energetic and impulsive, but inquisitive Hadia believes that in any other family, "a young man acting like a young man would not be a problem." But in this household, the teenager's spirit clashes with Islamic laws, and the result is rebellion and guilt.

Part of what makes Mirza’s novel captivating is her ability to shift between contrasting perspectives. She depicts the panic of Amar’s parents as they struggle to find some effective balance between discipline and indulgence along with the torment of Amar’s conviction that he doesn’t belong or deserve the blessing of salvation or that he’s not a Muslim. Yet the real agony, which Mirza plumbs with such heart breaking sympathy, is Amar’s incurable longing for the balm of belief and the embrace of his devout parents.

"That was my fight: to continue to do little things for people around me, so no one would find fault in my demeanor and misattribute it to my religion."

As he struggles to find his place in the family, the novel explores how we show empathy or unfulfillment, and the things and words that get lost or remain unsaid

Each of the characters also contends with how their traditions and customs conflict with modern realities in various ways.

In gentle prose, Mirza traces those twined strands of yearning and sorrow that faith involves. She writes with a mercy that encompasses all things. If the demands of Islam make Rafiq behave strictly toward his only son, those same demands eventually inspire a confession of affection that is touching. Reading her novel made it easy to dwell among these people, to fall back under the gentle light of Mirza’s words.