Beloved Strangers: A Memoir

Chaudhuri left Bangladesh when she was 18, intent upon pursuing her education in the U.S., and the reader follows willingly. Chaudhuri’s deeply intimate and skillfully drawn memoir delves into her search for finding her place in the world—whether she’s dissecting her not so happy childhood in Bangladesh; attempting to understand God, play music, learn classical Indian dance; or analyzing her unglamorous life in an American city “whose spirit bears no buoyancy.” Chaudhuri presents searing portraits of her cool and distant mother and father and their disappointing reactions to her attempts to garner their affections. She charts the dissolution of her misguided first marriage and bittersweet return to Dhaka, the city of her childhood and her family. “Though we both know that we will never live in the Big House as a family, the mere fact that it is there, solid space that encases the vision of a beloved home, provides more comfort than I had ever admitted.” (June)