An American Brat: A Novel

by Bapsi Sidhwa

Overview

A sheltered Pakistani girl is sent to America by her parents, with unexpected results: "Entertaining, often hilarious . . . Not just another immigrant's tale." —Publishers Weekly
Feroza Ginwalla, a pampered, protected sixteen-year-old Pakistani girl, is sent to America by her parents, who are alarmed by the fundamentalism overtaking Pakistan—and influencing their daughter. Hoping that a few months with her uncle, an MIT grad student, will soften the girl's rigid thinking, they get more than they bargained for: Feroza, enthralled by American culture and her new freedom, insists on staying.
A bargain is struck, allowing Feroza to attend college with the understanding that she will return home and marry well. As a student in a small western town, Feroza finds her perceptions of America, her homeland, and herself beginning to alter. When she falls in love with a Jewish American, her family is aghast. Feroza realizes just how far she has come—and wonders how much further she can go—in a delightful, remarkably funny coming-of-age novel that offers an acute portrayal of America as seen through the eyes of a perceptive young immigrant.
"Humorous and affecting." —Library Journal
"Exceptional." —Los Angeles Times
"Her characters [are] painted so vividly you can almost hear them bickering." —The New York Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571318299
Publisher:	Milkweed Editions
Publication date:	03/09/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	982 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, and raised in Lahore, Bapsi Sidhwa has been lauded as "Pakistan's finest English-language novelist." Sidhwa is the author of four novels: The Bride, Crow Eaters, An American Brat, and Cracking India (first published as Ice-Candy-Man in the UK), which was a New York Times Notable Book, nominated by the American Library Association as a Notable Book, and won the LiBerature Prize in Germany in 1991, and was made into the award-winning film Earth by Canadian/Indian director Deepa Mehta in 1999. Sidhwa was the recipient the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest honor in the arts in 1991, and was inducted into the Zoroastrian Hall of Fame in 2000. She has been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award, and the Bunting Fellowship from Radcliffe, amongst other honors. Her novels have been published abroad in India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Greece, and Italy. She has taught at several universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Though she now resides with her husband in Houston, Texas, Sidhwa travels often to Pakistan, seeking the inspiration of Lahore and working as an activist for women's and minority rights.
The Pakistani Bride, Crow Eaters, An American Brat, Cracking India (which was made into the award-winning film Earth by Indian director Deepa Mehta in 1999, and was named by Modern Library one of the best books in English published since 1950), and, most recently, Water (which was based on Deepa Mehta’s screenplay for the film of the same name). Her work has been published in ten countries and has been translated into several languages. Among her many honors, Sidhwa has received the Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe/Harvard, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest honor in the arts. She also served, at Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s request, on an Advisory Committee on Women’s Development in Pakistan. Sidhwa now resides in Houston.