What readers think of A Place for Us, plus links to write your own review.

I was literally blown away by the experience of reading A PLACE FOR US by Fatima Farheed Mirza.

The book was quite different from what I expected. First, I need to explain that I am a senior adult who is looking as you say "in my rear view mirror" at my life and the life of my family. I am a Christian and my faith is quite important to me. Second, I knew the book was going to be about an American Muslim family and I had anticipated that it would primarily center on the prejudices they would face since our country is so judgmentally divided and full of hate today. So I anticipated I would need to be understanding as I read about a culture that was quite different from mine.

The book does have a few elements of prejudice but this is not front and center.

The thing that impressed me most about the book is that it is the story about a family facing the problems that many of us have faced as our children form beliefs of their own which sometimes are at odds with the values and traditions that we, their parents, hold very close to our hearts. The author wrote this book about a Muslim family, but the truth is the book could have been a Christian, Jew, Buddhist or Mormon family. The hurt would be the same – the guilt would be the same- the yearning of the parents for them to be "family" again would be the same.

I found the book to be a deeply moving account of those times when mistakes are made and for me the story rang with an authenticity that reached the core of my being.

I received this book as part of the First Impressions program at Book Browse.com and this is my honest review of the book.

First of all I would like to thank BookBrowse for the advance copy of A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza. I loved this book, a beautifully written story of a Muslim Indian American family living before and in the aftermath of 9/11. As an American I don't think we fully realize the courage it takes to leave your native country and family, and travel hundreds of miles to a new and strange place. Trying to assimilate, yet hold on to your traditions, customs and religion. Then staring your own family, hoping your children will be comfortable in this country, but also honor their native heritage. I felt such empathy for these characters, they were so fully realized and fleshed out. I am so grateful this book came into my hands, it was a wonderful reading experience and I highly recommend it to all readers.

This is a moving and very well written book about a family with two daughters and a troubled younger son who feels like he doesn't fit in. The dynamics and the dysfunction of the family, along with the religious culture and their love for each other, will stay in my memory for a long time.

Absolutely stunning book. I was absorbed in the characters and plot, I simply couldn't put the book down. The characters truly stick with you long after the turn of the last page. Mirza takes the reader on a detailed journey by showing different views of faith, love and family. This book will stake its claim emotionally, a perfect story dissecting family life, old and new ways, expectations and disappointments, most of all love.

Wonderful book, Mirza is a force to reckon. Must read with all certitude.

I wavered between a 4 and a 5 for this book because I enjoyed reading it and felt the author did an excellent job of portraying the coming-of-age emotions of Hadia and her brother Amar, heightened by being part of a minority race and religion at a time when belonging and feeling the thrill of growing up with your peers is so important. Yet at the same time, as a reader, I was a little frustrated with the alternating flashback-present tense format. Sometimes the flashbacks went back to a younger age than the previous flashback, and I found myself underlining ages or grades in school to try and keep it straight. One of the strengths of this book is the honest insight it presents into a culture and family.I hope that readers who may not be accepting of a religion other than their own can read this book and come away appreciating the common threads of goodness and morality which bind many faiths as well as the shared religious stories.

I found this book to be both educational & deeply moving. Covering decades in the life of a contemporary Indian-American, devoutly Muslim family, it encompasses such ancient themes as generational divides, father-son estrangement, patriarchal family culture and heartbreaking betrayals and misunderstandings. The novel opens with the marriage celebration of the oldest daughter, revealing in the early pages the estrangement of the youngest member and only son, Amar. The plot is complex but the author's skill is most evident in her ability to gradually reveal those complexities through each family member's personal experiences within the family, comfortably shifting back and forth in time, moving the reader to empathize deeply with each of them and their struggles. The parents' devout Muslim faith and their bonds within their religious community play a strong part in the story and may serve to educate some readers in a positive sense regarding Islam as a faith and the difficulties of raising children in a minority faith, particularly in this current age of intolerance and ignorance. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to read this novel and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Initially I found it difficult to follow because of the many brief flashbacks in the story, but became more comfortable with the style and the central characters. Beautifully and touchingly written, it is a family's story in America while struggling to maintain their Indian Muslim roots. The theme is so timely where many are rethinking our country's role in helping middle Eastern refugees seeking asylum and our own immigrant past.

Impressed with the author's first work and look forward to reading more from her.

This is the story of a Muslim family coming of age in California, in the late 20th Century. The parents were raised in another time and place, with strong traditions, expectations and boundaries. The children, each in his/her own way, are challenging all of these aspects of living. Their parents are absolutely mystified by the behavior of the children, and at one point the Mother, Layla, wonders where these children have come from. They do not reflect the values of either parent.

This is a very complex accounting of the family which was to have taken place on a single day: the wedding of the older daughter which had not been "arranged". The time jumps back and forth many times as the back-story is filled in. It was the discontinuity of such frequent breaks in the narrative that made it difficult to follow. For this reason, this reader had to rate it "average".