As An American Brat opens in Pakistan, the extended family of sixteen-year-old Feroza Ginwalla, a lively and temperamental young girl, agonises over the decision to send Feroza to America for a three-month holiday. This act of apparent audacity arises from concern over Feroza s conservative attitudes, which stem from Pakistan s rising tide of fundamentalism.
Feroza s chaperone in America, an uncle only six years her senior, is her guide, friend and the bane of her existence. Her relationships and adventures shape her alternately hilarious and terrifying perceptions of America. Feroza s family in Pakistan, meanwhile, is in delicious turmoil over the possibility that American ways will ruin her.
Her play, Sock em With Honey, based on An American Brat, played in
London and Leicester in 2003 to full houses.
Praise for An American Brat
Recalls Gone With The Wind... powerful and disturbing... The New York Times
Sidhwa s writing is brisk and funny, her characters painted so vividly you can almost hear them bickering! The New York Times Book Review
An American Brat is an exceptional novel... funny and memorable! Los Angeles Times
About the Author
Born in Karachi and brought up in Lahore, Bapsi Sidhwa, a graduate of Kinnaird College for Women, now lives in Houston. Sidhwa held a Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe, and received the prestigious Lila Wallace Reader s Digest Writers Award. She has taught at Columbia University, the University of Houston, Mount Holyoke College and Southampton University. She has been awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan s highest national honour in the arts.
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