BRICK LANE

BRICK LANE: A BBC RADIO 4 FULL-CAST DRAMATISATION

A stunning BBC radio adaptation of Monica Ali's bestselling Booker-shortlisted novel 1985. Uprooted from her home in Bangladesh 18-year-old Nazneen is sent to London for an arranged marriage with a much older man. Her new life is strange and bewildering - the busy streets and crowded tower blocks of the East End are a world away from the rural village she grew up in and she struggles to adapt to living with her self-important husband Chanu. Back in Bangladesh Nazneen's sister Hasina has eloped with the man she loves and been disowned by her family. Homesick and isolated Nazneen reads her letters with envy longing to have such independence and romance for herself. As the years pass she devotes herself to becoming a dutiful wife and mother - and then she meets a passionate young radical Karim and finds herself drawn to him. Can she finally decide to take charge of her destiny? Monica Ali's stunning debut has become a modern classic. Published in 2003 its themes of immigrant identity and integration racism and nationalism free will and fate still resonate with us today.

LOVE MARRIAGE

Yasmin Ghorami has a lot to be grateful for: a loving family, a fledgling career in medicine and a charming, handsome fiancé, fellow doctor Joe Sangster. But as the wedding day draws closer and Yasmin's parents get to know Joe's firebrand feminist mother, both families must confront the unravelling of long-held secrets, lies and betrayals. As Yasmin dismantles her own assumptions about the people she holds most dear, she's also forced to ask herself what she really wants in a relationship and what a 'love marriage' actually means.