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Yet on her honeymoon in Madras, with the monsoon rains drumming ceaselessly outside, the full horror of the devil's bargain she has made is revealed, forcing her to make painful decisions about her roles as a Muslim, a wife and a woman. Set against the backdrop of  mounting Hindu-Muslim tensions, MADRAS ON RAINY DAYS, lyrically evokes the complexities of life behind the chador.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49527672602897,"sku":"GOR003771089","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49658364789009,"sku":"GOR008118205","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0749935677.jpg?v=1750882031"},{"product_id":"madras-on-rainy-days-book-samina-ali-9780312423308","title":"Madras on Rainy Days","description":"As a dutiful Muslim daughter, and an independent young American, Layla is torn between clashing identities. When she reluctantly submits to an arranged marriage in Hyderabad, Layla experiences all the ancient and elaborate rites of a highly traditional wedding. Set against a background of rising Hindu-Muslim violence, and taboo questions of sexuality, Samina Ali presents the complexities of life behind the chador, and the story of a marriage where no one is what they seem.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49592441110801,"sku":"GOR008560211","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50177315897617,"sku":"CIN0312423306G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50913892892945,"sku":"CIN0312423306VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51000886001937,"sku":"NIN9780312423308","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51232717177105,"sku":"GOR010191507","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0312423306.jpg?v=1751356845"},{"product_id":"madras-on-rainy-days-book-samina-ali-9780374195625","title":"Madras on Rainy Days","description":"Layla is torn between clashing identities - dutiful Muslim daughter and free, independent American woman. 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It takes you through a journey to discover the answers to these questions with an insight in every chapter providing you with a self-discovery in a new dimension.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50332336292113,"sku":"GOR007933903","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1909623679.jpg?v=1750868250"},{"product_id":"pieces-you-ll-never-get-back-book-samina-ali-9781646222612","title":"Pieces You'll Never Get Back","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A life-altering neurological disorder. A traumatic birth. An unlikely survival.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ePieces You'll Never Get Back\u003c\/i\u003e is a harrowing and redemptive memoir, in which a new mother must reconstruct her shattered mind, her relationship to her religious upbringing, and her life's purpose\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e At 29, as a young writer working on her first novel, Samina Ali nearly died giving birth to her son. Miraculously, she survived the unchecked eclampsia that had endangered her pregnancy, instead sustaining major brain injury and falling into a coma as she gave birth. When she woke up, only her deepest memories were intact. Her husband was a stranger to her, she didn't remember having a baby, and any language other than her native Urdu was foreign. Medical consensus was she would never recover--much less write--again.  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Advised to think of her brain as a shattered puzzle, Ali began the long and difficult journey of piecing herself back together: learning to walk, speak, and accomplish basic human tasks alongside her newborn. She attempted to reckon with her past identity as a writer and a wife, and her new identity as a mother. Despite her miraculous survival, the disconnect between the old and the new self was devastating. It would be three years before she felt remotely normal, and seven before she was mended and could fully connect with her son. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Ali pairs the story of her \"death\" and recovery with the parallel narrative of her relationship to her Islamic upbringing and her fluctuating connection to her faith, incorporating meditations on religious narratives of death, the afterlife, resurrection, and reincarnation. 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