Bangladeshi writer Maria Chaudhuri has recently released her debut memoir, Beloved Strangers, chronicling her experiences of growing up in Dhaka and then returning to live here after many years.
“Beloved Strangers: A Memoir is a candid and moving account of growing up and a meditation on why people leave their homes and why they sometimes find it difficult to return,” said a press release.
Chaudhuri’s experiences would resonate with anyone carving out a place for herself in the world, straddling two cultures while trying to find a place to belong, it said.
Maria Chaudhuri grew up in Bangladesh and completed her higher studies in the United States. She has had essays, features and short stories published in various journals and literary magazines and first caught the eye of international publishers with her entry in the Bangladeshi literary journal Bengal Lights.
Released by Bloomsbury Circus, an international publishing agency with its offices in London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney, Beloved Strangers is priced at BDT665 and is being distributed in Bangladesh by Bengal Lights Books.
The book can be found in major bookstores around Dhaka, including The Bookworm, Omni Books and Boi Bichitra, as well as other outlets including Meena Bazar, Jatra, Aranya and Red Shift Coffee Lounge.
A lot of Maria’s writings focus on personal experience, especially drawn from the perspectives of being a Bengali woman living in both Bangladesh and abroad and as a person who has never been able to call one place ‘‘home.’’