A powerful, funny, richly observed tour de force by one of Americas most acclaimed young writers: a story of love and marriage, secrets and betrayals, that takes us from the backyards of America to the back alleys and villages of Bangladesh.
In The Newlyweds, we follow the story of Amina Mazid, who at age twenty-four moves from Bangladesh to Rochester, New York, for love. A hundred years ago, Amina would have been called a mail-order bride. But this is an arranged marriage for the twenty-first century: Amina is wooed by--and woos--George Stillman online.
For Amina, George offers a chance for a new life and a different kind of happiness than she might find back home. For George, Amina is a woman who doesnt play games. But each of them is hiding something: someone from the past they thought they could leave behind. It is only when they put an ocean between them--and Amina returns to Bangladesh--that she and George find out if their secrets will tear them apart, or if they can build a future together.
The Newlyweds is a surprising, suspenseful story about the exhilarations--and real-life complications--of getting, and staying, married. It stretches across continents, generations, and plains of emotion. What has always set Nell Freudenberger apart is the sly, gimlet eye she turns on collisions of all kinds--sexual, cultural, familial. With The Newlyweds, she has found her perfect subject for that vision, and characters to match.She reveals Aminas heart and mind, capturing both her new American reality and the home she cannot forget, with seamless authenticity, empathy, and grace. At once revelatory and affecting, The Newlyweds is a stunning achievement.
A famous Chinese performance artist and political activist accepts an artist's residency in Los Angeles, where he is to stay with a wealthy Beverly Hills family. From the moment he arrives, however, it becomes clear that all is not what it seems - on either side. The dissident seems strangely reluctant to talk about his past, and is happier teaching than working on projects of his own; his hosts appear - on the surface at least - to be a happy, nuclear family, yet their relationships are, in fact, fraught with rivalries and tensions. Set in Los Angeles and Beijing, The Dissident tells the story of a life in flux and a family near breaking point - and what happens when the two collide. 'An incandescent talent . . . Freudenberger's novel unfolds into that rare thing, a work of poetics itself, a meditation in art. The fact that she does it with such wit and compassion, such generosity of mind and heart, is miraculous' The Times 'Freudenberger is most certainly the genuine article' Guardian
