The Bones of Grace

On the eve of her departure from Boston 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. The two immediately connect despite their differences: Elijah belongs to a prototypical American family, whereas Zubaida is the adopted daughter of a wealthy family in Dhaka.

But when a twist of fate sends her back to her hometown, the inevitable force of society compels her to take a very different path. Before she knows it, she's married to her childhood best friend and discontentedly settled into a traditional Bangladeshi life.

In a final bid to escape familial constraints, she moves to Chittagong to help make a documentary film about the infamous shipbreaking beaches, where ships are destroyed and their various parts put up for sale. Here she meets Anwar, a shipbreaker whose story holds a key that unlocks for Zubaida not only the mysteries of her past but the possibilities of a new life—and she will make a choice from which she can never turn back.

The Bones of Grace by Tahmima Anam is a profound exploration of love and identity, confronting the confines of tradition and the yearning for freedom.