This is an excellent book. I took this book on a little vacation with me, and it was the perfect evening read for me - engaging, but not so fast-paced that I felt the need to rush through it all at once. I loved the whole story, and enjoyed seeing the same situation from several different points of view. Being a stranger-in-a-strange-land myself, I could relate to some parts of the family's immigrant experience, especially that perpetual yet indefinite plan to go home 'sometime soon', but never quite yet. And speaking of 'home', what does that mean to a child who keeps hearing of a homeland that s/he has never seen? Can that really ever be 'home' for them? I read this book while visiting my mother in Nova Scotia, Canada - the place I consider home, though I have been gone for almost twenty years. I wonder what that place will mean to my 7-year-old son when he grows up? Something to think about for me.

Caught for the m-bag going to our friends in New Zealand.

And last but not least, the final box in the most generous box from jamesmum. This, too, looks interesting, but even more so after I read your compelling comments in your journal entry!

I have a different view of "home" too, as my father was from the Netherlands, my mother from the U.S., and then when he came to the States and finished university, he joined the US Air Force. So we travelled all over the world in my growing up years, and home was wherever Mom and Dad were. Now that I'm married, "home" is the house my husband and I live in -- my new family, as it were -- and we can go back to our parents' houses, but they aren't "home". Perhaps from moving around all my life, perhaps not, but "home" is where I live. Where I'm from is a whole other story . . .

Thank you so much for your contributions to the m-bag, jamesmum!

The m-bags have arrived (or 4 of them anyway!) We have had a wonderful afternoon unpacking them! Thanks for posting them Antof9 and thanks for the book Jamesmum, your contribution to the convention is greatly appreciated!
What a fabulous lot of books Jamesmum! Hope you don't mind if I sneak this one out of the pile for a little while, I have always wanted to read this one [this is boreal speaking in case you didn't know, Rarsberry is far less open to temptation!]

I read this over the past few days when my hubby and I were supposedly on holiday at our hut on the banks of a southern NZ river, we spent most of our time clearing away a fallen tree rather than relaxing but I still managed to do some reading.
I found this a little slow to start with but it soon got me hooked and I really enjoyed the beautiful writing and the story of an immigrant family. I especially liked this description of Mrs Islam, a wondeful character by the way.

The hair on her head was not tied tightly , as it usually was, in a neat spool of white held together by the invisible powers of godliness and elastics. Now it more nearly resembled the nest of a slovenly and spectacularly incontinent bird, and it glitterd withe the demented treasure of a dozen black metal pins

I shall now put this aside for the convention as planned.

Received in my 2006 Dunedin conference goodie bag. It looks intriguing.

thanks so much

RELEASE NOTES:

Left in the hutch under the coffee table

I just had lunch at Lilliblack OBCZ and looked over the books. This book is no longer there. It is exploring it's karma with some interested person who has taken it home.

I thought I'd make a journal entry to update it's progress and to remove it from the go hunting page.

Picked up at the LilliBlack BookCrossingZone this morning. (Beat you there, Pixette! but went on shopping, not home to journal.)

I will read this book with special interest, as I, too, am one of those for whom 'home' is a difficult concept. Born in the USA, I went to six primary schools in five USA states, before my parents stopped to let me finish my schooling. As a young adult I moved to Australia, and this is home (but I've lived in two states and the Australian Capital Territory). My parents, too, moved on. When I return to the USA, I go to places I have never lived to be with family and friends.

Home is where the heart is...and that can be more than one place.

What happens when a young Bangladeshi woman finds herself in an arranged marriage in London. He is an older good man who does not achieve his dreams and she is a woman who learn to question what fate's role is in her life and how to take charge.
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Given today to a friend housebound with a broken foot. [This is also an introduction to BookCrossing!]