The Bones of Grace - Softcover

Tahmima Anam

3.8

740 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143429051 ISBN 13: 9780143429050

Publisher: Penguin, 2017

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The Bones of Grace is a modern love story spanning continents and the interwoven fortunes of those who have and have not. On the eve of her departure to discover evidence of the near mythological walking whale Ambulocetus Natans, Zubaida Haque falls in love with a stranger she meets at a piano concert. But after a tragedy sends her back to her hometown Dhaka, she seeks solace in the figure of an old friend and makes a rash decision with disastrous consequences. In a bid to escape familial constraints, she moves to a southern port city to help a charity working on the infamous shipbreaking beaches. Here she meets Anwar, a shipbreaker whose story holds a key that unlocks for Zubaida not only the mysteries of her past but the possibilities of a new life. The third instalment of the Bengal trilogy, The Bones of Grace brings the arc of Bangladesh s tumultuous history full circle in an epic of loss and love.

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From the Back Cover:

On the eve of her departure to find the bones of the walking whale—the fossil that provides a missing link in our evolution—Zubaida Haque falls in love with Elijah Strong, a man she meets in a darkened concert hall in Boston. Their connection is immediate and intense, despite their differences: Elijah belongs to a prototypical American family; Zubaida is the adopted daughter of a wealthy Bangladeshi family in Dhaka. When a twist of fate sends her back to her hometown, the inevitable force of society compels her to take a very different path: she marries her childhood best friend and settles into a traditional Bangladeshi life.

While her family is pleased by her obedience, Zubaida seethes with discontent. Desperate to finally free herself from her familial constraints, she moves to Chittagong to work on a documentary film about the infamous beaches where decommissioned ships are destroyed, their remains salvaged by locals who depend on the goods for their survival. Among them is Anwar, a ship-breaker whose story holds a key that will unlock the mysteries of Zubaida’s past—and the possibilities of a new life.

About the Author:

Tahmima Anam is the author of the Bengal trilogy, which chronicles three generations of a Bangladeshi family from the war of independence to the present day. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1975, Anam was raised in Paris, New York and Bangkok. She studied at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University, where she received a Ph.D. in social anthropology in 2005. Her first novel, A Golden Age, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and a Costa Book Award for best first novel and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. It was followed by The Good Muslim. Anam was named one of Granta s Best Young British Novelists in 2013. Her writings have been published in the New Statesman, the Guardian and the Independent and she has been a contributing writer for the New York Times since 2013. She is currently on the jury of the Man Booker International Prize. She lives in London.

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