The Black Marketer's Daughter
Suman Mallick
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Zuleikha arrives in the US from Lahore, Pakistan, by marriage, having trained as a pianist without ever owning a real piano. Now she finally has one-a wedding present from her husband-but nevertheless finds it difficult to get used to her new role of a suburban middle-class housewife who has an abundance of time to play it.
Haunted by the imaginary worlds of the confiscated contraband books and movies that her father trafficked in to pay for her education and her dowry, and unable to reconcile them with the expectations of the real world of her present, she ends up as the central figure in a scandal that catapults her into the public eye and plays out in equal measures in the local news and in backroom deliberations, all fueled by winds of anti-Muslim hysteria. The Black-Marketer's Daughter was a finalist for the Disquiet Open Borders Book Prize, and praised by the jury as a "complicated and compelling story" of our times, with two key cornerstones of the novel being the unsympathetic voice with which Mallick, almost objectively, relays catastrophic and deeply emotional events, and the unsparing eye with which he illuminates the different angles and conflicting interests at work in a complex situation. The cumulative effects, while deliberately unsettling to readers, nevertheless keeps them glued to the pages out of sheer curiosity about what will happen next.Product Details
Price
$17.99
$16.73
Publisher
Atmosphere Press
Publish Date
October 13, 2020
Pages
166
Dimensions
5.25 X 8.0 X 0.38 inches | 0.43 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781648261541
BISAC Categories:
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Reviews
"The Black-Marketer's Daughter is a key-hole look at a few things: a mismatched marriage, the plight of immigrants in the U.S., the emotional toll of culture shock, and the brutal way Muslim women are treated, especially by men within their own community. Titling it-defining the heroine by her relationship to a man rather than as a woman in her own right-suggests how deeply ingrained that inequality can be."
IndieReader Reviews
"Mallick offers an impressively realistic depiction of a woman caught between tradition, family, and her own sense of empowerment."
Kirkus Reviews
"A powerful debut, sure-footed and tender. Mallick takes us on a journey that deftly slips in and out of disparate expectations, cultures, and desires, showing us the spaces in between. A gorgeously written book with a protagonist I'll never forget."
Lily Brooks-Dalton, author of Good Morning, Midnight and Motorcycles I've Loved "The Black-Marketer's Daughter is the portrait of a woman who endures violence, intimidation, xenophobia and grief, and yet refuses to be called a victim. In this slender novel, Suman Mallick deftly navigates the funhouse maze of immigrant life in contemporary America-around each corner the possibility of a delight, a terror, or a distorted reflection of oneself." Matthew Valentine, Winner, Montana Prize for Fiction; Lecturer, University of Texas at Austin"This story reminds us that our lives spring from cultural traditions we must either escape or embrace. With rich language and a keen eye for the details of a small enclave in North Texas, Suman Mallick reveals a complex world hidden within American society." Andrew Mitin, author of Time Spent Away
"In The Black-Marketer's Daughter, Suman Mallick explores the myriad systems by which this world further entraps victims of violence--the law, the mosque, the marriage--and offers us a way through."
Matthew Robinson, author of The Horse Latitudes
IndieReader Reviews
"Mallick offers an impressively realistic depiction of a woman caught between tradition, family, and her own sense of empowerment."
Kirkus Reviews
"A powerful debut, sure-footed and tender. Mallick takes us on a journey that deftly slips in and out of disparate expectations, cultures, and desires, showing us the spaces in between. A gorgeously written book with a protagonist I'll never forget."
Lily Brooks-Dalton, author of Good Morning, Midnight and Motorcycles I've Loved "The Black-Marketer's Daughter is the portrait of a woman who endures violence, intimidation, xenophobia and grief, and yet refuses to be called a victim. In this slender novel, Suman Mallick deftly navigates the funhouse maze of immigrant life in contemporary America-around each corner the possibility of a delight, a terror, or a distorted reflection of oneself." Matthew Valentine, Winner, Montana Prize for Fiction; Lecturer, University of Texas at Austin"This story reminds us that our lives spring from cultural traditions we must either escape or embrace. With rich language and a keen eye for the details of a small enclave in North Texas, Suman Mallick reveals a complex world hidden within American society." Andrew Mitin, author of Time Spent Away
"In The Black-Marketer's Daughter, Suman Mallick explores the myriad systems by which this world further entraps victims of violence--the law, the mosque, the marriage--and offers us a way through."
Matthew Robinson, author of The Horse Latitudes
