Samina Ali

Biographical information awaited.

Samina Ali is US-born, but was educated in India. She lives in San Francisco.

Works

• Madras on Rainy Days {2004}

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Madras on Rainy Days

Madras on Rainy Days quietly questions the place of women in Islam. The novel is impressive for its restrained look at one woman’s place in a world where she never quite fits in. Layla, the protagonist, is Muslim, but she is also American, a child of divorce, a survivor of child abuse, and an exile who divides her time between Hyderabad in India and America, never quite belonging in either place. With the odds heavily stacked against her, Layla agrees to an arranged marriage to a handsome engineer, Sameer.

As Layla adjusts to her new home, and to a new husband, she is tested quite often by a husband who vanishes at odd hours of the day and night. Sameer forgives Layla her past and in turn extracts a promise from her to never bring up the past.

As Layla eventually confronts the past, she also matures in many ways. The isolation that held her in good stead for a while, and that protected her, is no longer a ready crutch. The gradual maturing of Layla is set amidst the background of Hindu-Muslim tensions in India.

Source: Poornima Apte in Curled Up With a Good Book