Home of the Floating Lily

Abdullah’s well-crafted debut collection explores the lives of Bangladeshi immigrants in Toronto. “A Good Family” depicts the changes in a friendship forged between older, divorced Rubina and neighbor Shumi, recently married and relocated to the “Little Bangladesh” section of the city from Dhaka. There, neighbors gossip about Rubina, who is trying to find a husband for her daughter and teach Shumi to cook with Rubina’s family’s recipes. In “A Secret Affair,” a widower receives weekly calls from his former sister-in-law berating him for his new marriage, just months after her sister’s death. In “Across the Ocean,” 20-something Reema is back home visiting her aunt in Dhaka after a year studying in Toronto. Nearing 60, Aunty has ruthlessly run her household after her husband’s death and her son and his wife moved to the U.S., and now hires and fires a new maid every few months. Reema is soothed by teenage maid Amina, who reminds her of her late mother’s tenderness, and is dismayed to learn her aunt has slapped Amina. Throughout, Abdullah writes with poignancy and subtlety about her characters’ self-discovery as they seek a sense of home amid turbulence and change. This is worth a look. (July)