From the award-winning, nationally bestselling author of A Golden Age
and The Good Muslim comes a lyrical, deeply moving modern love story
about belonging, migration, tragedy, survival, and the mysteries of
origins.
On the eve of her departure to find the bones of the walking whale--the
fossil that provides a missing link in our evolution--Zubaida Haque
falls in love with Elijah Strong, a man she meets in a darkened concert
hall in Boston. Their connection is immediate and intense, despite their
differences: Elijah belongs to a prototypical American family; Zubaida
is the adopted daughter of a wealthy Bangladeshi family in Dhaka. When a
twist of fate sends her back to her hometown, the inevitable force of
society compels her to take a very different path: she marries her
childhood best friend and settles into a traditional Bangladeshi life.
While her family is pleased by her obedience, Zubaida seethes with
discontent. Desperate to finally free herself from her familial
constraints, she moves to Chittagong to work on a documentary film about
the infamous beaches where ships are destroyed, and their remains
salvaged by locals who depend on the goods for their survival. Among
them is Anwar, a shipbreaker whose story holds a key that will unlock
the mysteries of Zubaida's past--and the possibilities of a new life. As
she witnesses a ship being torn down to its bones, this woman torn
between the social mores of her two homes--Bangladesh and America--will
be forced to strip away the vestiges of her own life . . . and make a
choice from which she can never turn back.
